Suryakant Lokhande’s #EveryDayIsCheatDay explores Disney nostalgia and consumer desire at ICIA Gallery, Mumbai
An arresting narrative of everything, something, and nothing (not necessarily in that same order) invites viewers at Mumbai’s Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA) Gallery into a fascinatingly off-kilter series of 10 artworks by contemporary artist Suryakant Lokhande. The solo exhibition, titled #EveryDayIsCheatDay, by AstaGuru Auction House and ICIA, contextualises the thematic undertone of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play Waiting for Godot through a visual grammar that is striking, nostalgic, colourful, and animated.
Dunking The Diamond; 48 x 36 in (122 x 91.4 cm); High-gloss oil on canvas 2024
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Using Disney characters — from Uncle Scrooge to Mickey Mouse — Suryakant stages an illusion of allure that pulls viewers back to the 6pm Disney Hour, a dopamine-rich television staple of millennial childhood. What initially appears almost therapeutic — a reminder of good times — slowly mutates into a guilty pleasure (think screen time stretching past homework and sleep deadlines), before metamorphosing into a garish carousel of desire and aspiration. The works evoke ticketed rollercoaster rides at Disneyland, privileges contingent on travel visas and a solid bank balance. An inner dialogue unfolds as the viewer engages with the aesthetics on display.
Field Observation; 60 x 60 in (152.4 x 152.4 cm); High-gloss oil on canvas 2024
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In one artwork, Uncle Scrooge and his three grandnephews — Huey, Dewey, and Louie — are shown measuring wealth. In another, they are clad in safari suits, navigating jungles inhabited by elephants and tigers. Elsewhere, a treasure chest appears with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy at the forefront.
The Treasure Chest; 48 x 60 in (122 x 152.4 cm) High-gloss oil on canvas 2024
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Suryakant draws from Beckett’s existential pause and transposes it into the era of scrolling, consumption, and dopamine. “Godot, representative of a belief system or superior knowledge, has been replaced by the algorithm. Waiting is no longer still or boring; it is noisy, colourful, and endlessly entertaining. Disney characters represent global childhood nostalgia and mass-produced fantasy. I use cartoon-like figures not to reference specific characters but to evoke a shared visual memory. They become symbolic figures — innocent on the surface, yet placed within scenarios of indulgence and absurdity, reflecting how fantasy and consumption merge today,” he says of the works produced between 2022 and 2025, during a period of close observation of everyday indulgence, repetition, and contemporary social behaviour.
Detached from their original narratives, these cartoon characters function as cultural masks. Abundance in Suryakant’s works is not presented as achievement but as atmosphere — of excess, indulgence, tragedy, and comedy. The figures remain perpetually engaged — collecting, posing, resting, celebrating — yet their actions feel suspended in repetition, recalling Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus, in which meaning and consciousness emerge as Sisyphus descends the hill to retrieve his rock.
Rooftop Reverie; 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 122 cm) High-gloss oil on canvas 2024
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In Suryakant’s works, this looping theatricality suggests a quiet tension between activity and stasis, spectacle and emptiness. Rather than offering overt critique, the artist mirrors the logic of contemporary consumption back to the viewer through exaggeration and visual excess.
“I primarily use industrial enamel paint on canvas, sometimes combined with metallic pigments and mixed media. The shiny, polished surface mimics the artificial gloss of advertising and luxury culture. The visual language relies on bright colours, repetition, cartoon imagery, and exaggerated surfaces. These elements mirror the language of advertising and entertainment, where desire is amplified and constantly repeated. The compositions appear playful but are structured to suggest overload, stagnation, and saturation,” he adds.
Staging Power; 48 x 36 in (152.4 x 122 cm) High-gloss oil on canvas 2024
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#EveryDayIsCheatDay ultimately presents modern life as a stage on which pleasure is endlessly rehearsed — abundant, performative, and quietly unresolved. The artworks prove that meaning in the absurd is not elusive; it merely refuses to perform for philistines.
Artworks, priced upwards of ₹3 lakh, will be on display at the ICIA Gallery from February 9 to 14.
Published – February 10, 2026 09:55 pm IST
