Step into the Punjab Kala Bhawan this week and no two walls feel alike. A charcoal woodcut of a man staring into his own splintered reflection hangs beside a riot of colour — a jungle canvas alive with cacti, frogs and beetles. Nearby, a woman in an orange robe walks past golden arches in an oil painting. Near the entrance, a bull fashioned from wire and discarded LED strips carries a rider stitched together from scrap, while further inside, a warrior cast in tyre rubber keeps watch with shield in hand. Yet sculpture is only one voice in the exhibition. Woodcuts, watercolours and photographs share the space, each pulling the eye somewhere new.Artist K.R. Kohli, exhibiting his charcoal piece Trumpet Player, spoke of that restlessness as almost a philosophy. “I like to work on different subjects, different textures, different techniques,” he said, recalling how a wedding band musician became his muse, “I wanted the musicians themselves to get a chance to participate in our celebration.” This year, a painting by his daughter, hung alongside his own. “I am very happy that for the first time a painting of a father and a daughter has been selected,” he said. “I have supported her work a lot.” Even so, he found himself stopped by other work in the room, including a canvas of two children at a window that, he said, caught him off guard with its restraint.Visitors carried their own maps through the gallery. “I liked two pieces,” said Gurleen Kaur, a student who’d spotted the exhibition in a newspaper listing. “One was Golden Rays, Chandigarh. And the other was Racing Hostel Life… it showed the normal life, the hostel life, of the parking lot. So, I related that to the student life.” Harveen was drawn instead to a portrait of a woman standing confidently amid colour — “very inspiring… every woman should be like that.”Asked how the walk through the gallery felt, one of them paused before answering: “Calm and energetic. In the beginning, it was calmness and peace. Then when it came to vibrant colours, it became energetic.” Perhaps that’s the truest description of the show itself — not one note, but a whole shifting score.The Annual Art Exhibition 2026 runs at Punjab Kala Bhawan, Sector 16B, Chandigarh, till 13th August, 11 am–7 pm daily.