Anju Dodiya's rise has been meteoric... and she is presently basking in the limelight with other art luminaries who are at the peak of the contemporary Indian art heap. In the recent Saffronart Spring Online auction held on March 7 and 8, her 2001 painting titled Rain (estimated at $85,000-$95,000) surpassed all expectations…and recorded a winning bid of $181,125! No wonder Bodhi Art Gallery has chosen to make a statement of its presence in Mumbai by marking the first anniversary of the inauguration of its space (which opened with a long-awaited show by her husband, Atul Dodiya) with a site-specific installation by the Mumbai artist that was launched with colourful fanfare at the Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda in mid-March. The gallery made a flamboyant foray into that art hub by flying down around 50 of India's well-known artists from all over the country to witness the unveiling of Throne of Frost, Dodiya's debut show in Baroda.

Interestingly, the ornate Durbar hall of the palace with its luxurious furnishings and resonances of royalty was not just the venue, but the catalyst for the show comprising paintings and installations enigmatically arranged along the sides of a square, with a sea of cracked mirrors (that exhibited fragments of those mysterious images in conjunction with broken reflections of jharokhas and chandeliers) filling the space inside the square. "In a significant way, this invitation to the palace marks an artistic homecoming for Anju, whose work has always gathered energy from heraldic symbolism, the drama of chivalric devices, tales of duel, joust and troubadour romance and the narratives of knights, samurais and their ladies," discloses curator, Nancy Adajania, in the catalogue essay. "The artist responds to the opulence of the palace by shrouding her protagonists in charcoal dust."

The 42-year-old artist, who is known to be a skilled draughtswoman and amazing colourist, kept in mind the palace and its grandeur while working on the collection for over a year. The Durbar Hall, which boasts of Italian mosaic flooring and paintings from the time of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad (founder of the M.S. University of Baroda), was chosen for its stately Indo-Saracenic architecture and regal ambience, which breathe life into the installation. Following a successful presentation in Baroda, Throne of Frost is on show at the Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai, from April 7 to May 31.