In a quiet conservation studio in Brisbane, the gods are being reborn. Layers of time and varnish are being carefully lifted from luminous faces of Lakshmi, Saraswati, Krishna and Ram – their garments gleaming once again with zardozi (metal thread embroidery), vibrant garlands and sequined halos. It’s not a temple, but the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), where a groundbreaking Indo-Australian project is bringing new life to the art of one of India’s most revered painters: Raja Ravi Varma.
Leading this effort is Tarun Nagesh, QAGOMA’s Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art, whose connection to Ravi Varma’s imagery began decades before this conservation began. “I regularly visited family in Mysore as a child,” Nagesh recalls. “Ravi Varma’s paintings were everywhere – in homes, in shops – and even then, I knew how deeply woven his images were into Indian life.”
That childhood familiarity found professional purpose when QAGOMA acquired a remarkable set of 48 embroidered oleographs – prints that had once adorned homes and temples across India.
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“Seeing such a large collection with known provenance and all similarly embellished seemed like such a rare opportunity,” says Nagesh. “It allowed us to capture a whole range of stories about Ravi Varma while considering his works in a contemporary context.”
QAGOMA is collaborating with the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, whose team of paper conservation specialists is providing critical expertise in restoring and preserving Ravi Varma’s delicate works. The project, supported by the Australian Government’s Maitri Cultural Partnerships initiative, is on display at the Queensland Art Gallery from September 2025 until October 2026 and is aptly titled, ‘The God of Small Things: Faith and Popular Culture’.
Speaking to Indian Link, Nagesh observes, “While we knew Ravi Varma’s oleographs would have such resonance for the Indian diaspora, it became very quickly apparent people were fascinated with them even if they were completely unfamiliar with the artist.”
RESTORING THE GODS
The condition of the works, some dating back over a century, posed unusual challenges. Many had been lovingly – if not expertly – preserved in domestic spaces, like homes or businesses for worship.
“The condition was consistent with works kept in Indian homes,” Nagesh explains. “They featured elaborate embellishments with textiles, beads, silver threads – all mounted differently.”
Because oleographs sit somewhere between print and painting, their restoration required a multidisciplinary team. Paper conservators worked alongside textile and sculpture specialists, addressing issues from varnish yellowing to frayed embroidery. “Our framing and mounting specialists even studied the types of frames once used in India,” Nagesh adds, “to restore them authentically.”
The oleographs in question are not grand oil paintings destined for royal palaces, but printed devotional images – artworks of the people.
This mix of reverence and embellishment gives each print a distinct personality. Garlands stitched from cloth, sari borders of gold thread, even beads and sequins transform these prints into living cultural artefacts.
“It’s this hybrid identity that makes them so fascinating,” Nagesh notes. “They sit between popular culture and fine art.”
RESONANCE AMONG DIASPORA AND BEYOND
For QAGOMA, the project has been a way to connect with the Indian diaspora in Australia – and to introduce new audiences to a cornerstone of Indian visual history. “Ravi Varma is one of the few Indian artists so widely known, and we knew his images would instantly resonate,” Nagesh says. “For others, seeing them for the first time has been just as exciting.”
The ongoing Brisbane exhibition explores spirituality and everyday devotion – but with a contemporary twist, examining how artists reinterpret faith, divinity, and popular culture in the spirit of Raja Ravi Varma’s legacy. Raja Ravi Varma
“While curating this exhibition, we wanted to investigate what these works meant today, and the ideas they could raise when brought into conversation with other artworks. But, we were particularly interested to explore how artists in different contexts create their own forms of the gods, how religion features in popular culture, and how objects of worship are present in the everyday – all ideas relevant to the history of Ravi Varma’s legacy, but expressed by other artists in a diversity of ways.”
The conservation work, which is ongoing and will continue simultaneously as the oleographs are displayed at the exhibition in two chapters, revealed all kinds of fascinating discoveries for the team.
“Under the mounts, we often found the bands of text showing where and when the works were printed,” Nagesh shares. “Some even had old newspaper strips on the back from previous framings – little clues to their journeys.”
Cleaning the surfaces, he adds, “brought so much colour and life back to the images – they look completely transformed, yet still bear the beauty of their age.”
Beyond the exhibition, Nagesh hopes this is just the beginning of long-term collaboration between Indian and Australian institutions. “This has been such a deep research and conservation effort,” he reflects. “We’re planning to publish and share our findings widely in conservation and museum forums. And I can already see more opportunities on the horizon – this project has opened so many doors.”
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