India’s debut Global Botanical Art Exhibition featured some stunning works from the country and abroad

India's first global botanical art exhibition at RRBCEA showcases diverse crops through art, highlighting the importance of plant preservation.

India’s first global botanical art exhibition recently concluded at Pune’s Rupa Rahul Bajaj Center for Environment and Art (RRBCEA), in collaboration with the Indian Botanical Art Society. Timed to coincide with the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on May 18, the event began on May 17 and ran through May 24. This marked a significant milestone as India stepped onto the global stage to showcase the diversity of its crops through botanical art.

Among the display of artworks were two by Lenin Dani Raj, a self-taught artist hailing from Mettupalayam. The exhibition featured 32 works by 18 artists from India and Sri Lanka, all presented as part of the Botanical Art Worldwide 2025 initiative. India joined over 30 countries in hosting this international event, unified under the theme Celebrating Crop Diversity. The event aimed to bring together botanical artists worldwide in a celebration of the art form and the diversity of flora that humanity enjoys and cannot sustain without.

“For me, botanical art is a mix of science and art. It is all about capturing the beauty and detail of plants in a way that helps people understand and appreciate them deeply. Also, it’s not just about making it look pretty. The purpose is to document plants accurately, especially rare or lesser-known ones and to raise awareness about their importance,” says Lenin.

Two of his works garnered critical acclaim, one of them even making it to the cover of the catalogue of the prestigious event. “I was so happy that I was able to make something that deserved to be on the cover, I only knew that when I reached there on the opening day,” shares Lenin. The featured piece showcased Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) in striking detail.

“I chose Ashwagandha as it has a long history of use. As it is one of the most revered medicinal plants in Ayurveda,” says Lenin. His artwork explored a realistic approach, emphasising its unique stages of growth. The portrayal of the stark contrast of deep red of the fruit and the textured brown of the calyx, clearly depicting Ashwagandha’s value as a visually captivating plant with significant medicinal value, gained Lenin a place on the cover of the catalogue and the Certificate of Excellence.

The second choice by Lenin for his artwork was one of the most common crops in India, bajra. Popularly known as pearl millet, Lenin made this choice due to its cultural, economic and nutritional significance in India. Being a reliable plant that can withstand extreme conditions and even being deep-rooted enough to control soil erosion is a resilience that is hard to miss by a botanical artist.

“In this artwork, I made a split composition to show the full characteristics of the plant by presenting its top and bottom halves separately, yet in harmony. The right half displays the flowering head, while the left traces its journey from stalk to root,” explained Lenin.