When Art Is Not Off-Limits: How LOAM Is Reimagining Childhood Aesthetics

In most urban Indian homes, childhood is surrounded by objects designed to distract rather than endure. Plastic toys pile up quickly, polyester towels masquerade as comfort, and “kid-friendly” design often means disposable aesthetics. Art, meanwhile, remains carefully cordoned off — too fragile, too expensive, too serious. Not for children.

LOAM, launching in Mumbai on February 28 at Method Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda, challenges this division. It asks a deceptively simple question: why is art something we introduce cautiously and late, when children are already immersed in environments that shape their attention, imagination, and sense of beauty from birth?

(Frida Toy Face by Amrit Pal Singh)

The platform launches with two exhibitions: Woke Up A Dinosaur, a solo show by Mumbai-based artist Vinayak Sarwankar, and Scribble on the Wall, a group exhibition curated by Anica Mann, bringing together contemporary artists working across painting, textiles, sculpture, new media, and participatory formats.

Sarwankar’s Woke Up A Dinosaur is rooted in memory rather than nostalgia. Dinosaurs, playground structures, and loosely drawn figures surface as fragments — not symbols — of childhood imagination. His layered paintings blur the line between reality and fantasy, creating a space that speaks as much to adults as it does to children.

But LOAM’s beginnings lie outside the gallery.

When curator and art historian Anica Mann had her baby, her close friend Gayeti Singh — journalist and mother of two — began to notice something quietly striking. Mann, deeply embedded in the contemporary art world, was being gifted objects of real substance: a hand-made baby mobile by textile artist Liactuallee, thoughtfully crafted pieces made to last, to be touched, and to be lived with. Meanwhile, outside that world, the default language of childhood remained plastic toys and mass-produced clutter.

“That contrast was impossible to ignore,” Singh says. “Here was a baby being welcomed with objects that carried thought, materiality, and imagination — and the rest of us were drowning in things that would be thrown away in months.”

(Lay on Grass Art Rug by Vishaka Jindal)

It was in this moment of recognition that LOAM took shape — not as a children’s brand, but as a curatorial platform dedicated to listing and presenting contemporary art for children. The aim was not to aestheticise childhood, but to take it seriously: to curate works that invite curiosity, texture, humour, and open-ended engagement.

“Scribble on the Wall” brings together artists including Amrit Pal Singh, Anitha Reddy, Ashna Malik, Cultrebox, Hansika Mangwani, Harshita Sharma, Liactuallee, Mona Sharma, Pavan Kumar D, Raj Chowdhury, Revant Dasgupta, Sanathan Vatsayana, and Vishakha Jindal. Their practices vary widely, but they share a commitment to material intelligence and trust in the viewer — including the youngest one.

Importantly, these works are not simplified or instructional. They resist the logic of plastic toys and over-designed learning tools, instead offering children encounters shaped by texture, form, ambiguity, and play.

(Baby Bimol by Revant Dasgupta)

“Children don’t need everything to be explained to them,” Singh adds. “They are already incredibly perceptive. What they need is access — to real materials, real ideas, and objects that don’t underestimate them.”

LOAM also extends into functional art objects — mobiles, textiles, sculptural forms, and design-led pieces intended to live in homes rather than behind glass. The idea is not collectibility, but companionship: objects that age alongside children and gather meaning over time.

At a moment when childhood is increasingly shaped by screens, consumption, and speed, LOAM’s proposition feels quietly countercultural. It suggests that imagination does not need to be taught — only protected, trusted, and given space.

LOAM opens on February 28, marking its first public presentation at the intersection of contemporary art, design, and childhood culture. Parents are encouraged to bring their children. Everyone else may need to unlearn a few rules.

(Echoes Of A Home by Mona Sharma)

LOAM launches on 28 February 2026 at Method Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai. Full exhibition catalogues are available on request.

(Cover Photo: Felt Overload by Liactuallee)