Inside Vikram Goyal’s 'Wings and Tales' exhibition in London

Brass has long been central to Vikram Goyal’s practice, and in his latest collection—Wings and Tales—the designer puts the material to work in new ways. His signature repoussé work—hammered from the reverse into low-relief forms—lends an architectural presence to tables and screens, set against brocades, embroidery, and mother-of-pearl marquetry. Drawing on the fauna and landscapes of the Ramayana, Goyal uses the new collection to test how ancient craft idioms sit inside contemporary collectable design.

The Ramayana has travelled through centuries of retellings, inspiring writers, artists and performers to find new ways of interpreting its characters and themes. For Goyal, the epic offers a similar point of departure, one that allows him to explore storytelling through objects rather than words. Coinciding with Frieze and PAD London, Wings and Tales unfolds across two rooms in a Georgian townhouse in Mayfair, with the traditional Indian baithak, or drawing room, serving as its central idea. It is a fitting setting for a collection concerned with how objects acquire meaning through the spaces they inhabit and the people who gather around them.

Goyal approaches the baithak in two ways. One room is arranged around a fireplace, with sculptural furniture, brass screens, and brocade upholstery lending it an intimate, almost enveloping quality. The second is more theatrical, with brass screens that evoke Madhuvana, the mythical honey forest where the Vanaras, or forest dwellers, gather amid nature’s abundance. The contrast gives the exhibition a sense of movement, from the familiarity of a domestic interior to a setting drawn from the imagination.

“Contemporary design today often speaks a very abstract language. There is a lot of homogeneity, and storytelling is rare,” says Goyal. “The Ramayana shares lessons of friendship, empathy and compassion.” These ideas find expression in the collection through its animal motifs and richly worked surfaces, giving the pieces a character that extends beyond their decorative appeal. 

Monkeys, crocodiles, vultures, and other creatures from the epic find their way into brass reliefs and textile patterns, sometimes playing instruments or gathered in animated scenes. Indian miniature paintings and Silk Road textiles sit alongside references to 18th-century European furniture and French Art Deco. The mix is characteristic of Goyal’s approach, bringing together different artistic traditions through a shared attention to material and craft.

The experience extends to bowls of spices and fruit, bespoke candles and rose hips, which lend the rooms the feeling of a house prepared for company. Literary salons featuring Indian writers Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands, and Gurnaik Johal, author of Saraswati, bring another dimension to the exhibition. As Goyal explains, he wanted to create a setting for a “multi-dimensional and cultural dialogue”, allowing design and literature to meet in the same space.

On view from October 12 to October 16, 2026, Wings and Tales makes a case for the home as a place where art, history, and imagination can coexist. The pieces invite a closer look, but also leave room for the stories each viewer might bring to them.

All image credits: Ali Monis Naqvi

Image courtesy: Vikram Goyal

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