Suresh Waghmare ( b. 1970) is a master sculptor working within the Gadhwakam tradition of lost-wax metal casting, practiced by the Ghadwa community of Bastar in central India. The region is renowned for its production of ritual icons, utilitarian objects, and sculptural forms in bell metal, created through the ancient Dhokra technique, one of the earliest known methods of metal casting, with origins traceable to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The term Ghadwa, meaning ‘to shape’ or ‘to create’.
Central to Waghmare’s practice is the lost-wax (cire perdue) process. A clay core is first modelled and then wrapped in fine strands of beeswax, used both to define contour and to build up intricate surface ornamentation. The wax model is then encased in layers of clay, often incorporating termite mound earth, paddy husk, and cow dung, and fired in order to melt away the wax. Molten metal is poured into the resulting cavity, and once cooled, the outer mould is broken open to reveal a singular, unrepeatable form. The distinctive coiled wax-thread technique, unique to Bastar, lends the sculptures their rhythmic linear texture and tactile immediacy.
Waghmare’s works, often depicting tigers, lions, and hybrid mythical beings, are embedded in the ritual and animistic belief systems of the region. His stylised figures, characterised by elongated bodies and intricately worked surfaces, transform metal into vessels of memory, protection, and spiritual energy, articulating a vision of the interconnectedness between humans, animals, and the natural world. Although historically associated with ritual and ancestral worship, Waghmare’s sculptures occupy a liminal space between artefact and contemporary artwork. Their presence within gallery contexts signals both continuity and transformation, as traditional forms are re-situated within new aesthetic and cultural frameworks.
Waghmare has exhibited widely in India and internationally, including at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2017, 2024), Coomaraswamy Hall at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, J.J. School of Art, Mumabi (2014), the Namaste India Festival in Spain (2006) and Asian Art London (2025). Invited by the Government of India to demonstrate Gadhwakam during the Republic Day celebrations in 1994, he remains an active member of the regional sculptors’ cooperative and a leading exponent of the bell metal casting tradition.
