Rebels, masters and mavericks: What’s hot at India Art Fair 2025

Art Heritage has, among others, Haren Das’s woodcuts on paper, and Photoink is showing photographs of Vivan Sundaram alongside his grandfather Umrao Singh Sher-Gil.

At the Dhoomimal Gallery is a Raja Ravi Varma portrait alongside canvases of other renowned modernists, but also their smaller works on paper. “We understand that several of the bigger works have a higher price-point and the smaller works are also meant for younger collectors, a way for them to acquire works of renowned masters,” said Uday Jain, director of Dhoomimal Gallery.

Stop at Crayon Art for 11th century stone sculptures and works of Thomas and William Daniell showing India of the late 1700s, from Jama Masjid to Taj Mahal.

Exhibition by various artists at India Art Fair, Okhla NSIC ground. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

Threading stories

The fair’s commitment to textile arts reveals the medium’s evolving role in contemporary expression. Known for her allegorical narratives, Rekha Rodwittiya brings together several of her recurring motifs and engagements in two hand-embroidered works designed by her and created by Milaaya Art, titled “Home is Wherever You Are,” at Sakshi Gallery.

Grosvenor Gallery has a rag doll by Nek Chand, and Chatterjee and Lal have Moumita Das’s cotton-dyed and yarn wall works. At Gallery Espace, Manish Gera Baswani has works in delicate Chikankari, Manish Pushkale’s works at Akar Prakar borrow the painted patterns from Kantha embroidery, and Gurjeet Singh transforms discarded textiles into multi-layered faces at Chemould CoLab.

Artists from Bangladesh, showing at Britto Arts Trust, are also united by their use of textile panels to discuss varied concerns, and in an outdoor installation––The Whisperers––French artist Deborah Fischer has worked with charpai weaver Dinesh Solanki to weave her photographs of decaying walls across Jodhpur into a wall mat.

Showing with the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Sriparna Dutta has literally woven stories to share the problems of marginalised women she works with in a village near Santiniketan.

Exhibition by various artists at India Art Fair, Okhla NSIC ground, in New Delhi on Thursday, February 06, 2025. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

Village voices

From Warli to Gond, Chikankari to Madhubani, indigenous art forms receive equal prominence, challenging the traditional hierarchy of fine arts. If the Gondwana Art Project has Gond artists painting more contemporary patterns, Delhi Crafts Council has hand-painted works in natural dyes by Silpinwita Das. At Pichvai Tradition and Beyond, curator-entrepreneur Pooja Singhal has reinterpreted Pichvai art with more contemporary palettes and nuanced compositions.

Gallery Ragini is showcasing P Swamy sculptures in wood, Rian and Najish Khan wall tapestries, Dhavat Singh miniatures and KM Singh’s Pichvais, among others. “The fair gives equal platform to traditional arts, which is important to bring them the recognition they deserve,” said Nidhi Jain, director of Gallery Ragini.

Exhibition by various artists at India Art Fair, Okhla NSIC ground, in New Delhi on Thursday, February 06, 2025. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

Loud whispers

Social commentary emerges as a powerful theme throughout the fair. Art mirrors society and its pressing issues. While every artwork tells a story, others make more direct political and socio-economic references. Through his installation made of waste metal pipe –– Dar-Badar 2.0 –– Mohd Intiyaz talks about inequitable water distribution.

With “My Village is Going Abandon,” Umesh S embodies the gradual erosion of agricultural heritage. Yogesh Barve has LED tickers suspended from the roof to highlight text from Dalit writings that urge equal opportunities. His references include writings of social reformers BR Ambedkar, Jyotirao Phule and Periyar.

At her solo booth with Gallery Threshold, Anindita Bhattacharya’s layered works include the 24 x 8 feet And Still, the Paperboy Brings More that refers to the floor plan of the Babri Masjid, news articles published in early 2024, and words in Urdu from the Preamble.

Exhibition by various artists at India Art Fair, Okhla NSIC ground, in New Delhi on Thursday, February 06, 2025. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

Global players, local game

The international heavyweights haven’t missed the party, with renowned galleries like Lisson, David Zwirner, and Galleria Continua bringing works by global artists. Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei returns with a much smaller Neolithic Vase Merged with Toy Bricks at Lisson Gallery. The gallery is also showing Japanese-American Kelly Akash’s hand-blown glass sculptures, and British Indian-origin artist Anish Kapoor’s 2012 “Random Triangle Mirror” in stainless steel and lacquer.

David Zwirner booth is showcasing recent works by Pakistani-American sculptor Huma Bhabha and Columbian artist Oscar Murillo, while Galleria Continua has among others an untitled Kapoor alabaster alongside works by Nikhil Chopra, curator of the 2025 Kochi Muziris Biennale. The display at Carpenters Workshop includes Dutch artist Marteen Baas’s Self Portrait Clock.

In the outdoor space, Italian-British artist duo Claire Fontaine’s site-specific installation “Foreigners Everywhere” sees them respond to India with lettering in Indian languages, the signage with words such as “Swatara Bharat” and “Har Jagah Videshi”. Curated by Andrea Anastasio, also as part of the series, their works are being showcased at various locations across the Capital, including Khoj Studios, Sundar Nursery, and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.

Exhibition by various artists at India Art Fair, Okhla NSIC ground, in New Delhi on Thursday, February 06, 2025. Express photo by Abhinav Saha

The people’s canvas

This year marks a historic first – the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum of Jaipur steps out of its palace confines to present “We the People,” featuring court painter Ramji Das’s revolutionary 18th-century watercolors. These portraits of palace workers – from guards to barbers to nursemaids -– offer a rare glimpse into lives usually lost to history.

Gallery Ske has Sudarshan Shetty’s work in pink, from one of his early solos “Paper Moon” in 1995. At Nature Morte, Bharti Kher’s “A Thousand Faces” in stone contemplates multiple identities, and Subodh Gupta has viewers focusing on images that play as part of “Mars Kitchen,” his installation with utensils that reimagines the kitchen as a portal to the future.

At Vadehra Art Gallery, Atul Dodiya ponders the present and the past in “Weeping Ancestors,” featuring portraits of historical figures such as Nana Fadnavis, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Tatya Tope. Narayan Chandra Biswas returns to Palette Gallery with metal works in architectural designs created with a wooden finish. At Exhibit 320, Deepak Kumar has a chopped wing of an eagle in bronze to signify the damage to the environment, in the work Garuda, “The Silent Flight.”

Ankon Mitra has viewers walking into his immersive installation based on the Hevajra Mandala, and Aspura (a gallery of collectible carpets) has an intrigued audience standing before Rashid Rana’s pixelated images woven together in a work inspired by an antique Kashan rug.

At Chemould Prescott, N S Harsha has his monkey pointing towards the sky in the bronze “Sprouting Philosopher,” that emerges from the artist’s interest in “new proposals” for ways of life.

At the IAF, all 120 exhibitors transform Delhi into a living gallery where tradition isn’t merely preserved but continuously reinvented. It’s a space where yesterday’s masters share walls with tomorrow’s visionaries, and where the boundaries between craft, folk art, and contemporary expression blur into something thrillingly new.