Art Mumbai 2025 has solidified its position as a premier platform for contemporary South Asian art, drawing galleries and collectors from across the globe to the Mahalaxmi Racecourse from 13–16 November. This year’s edition showcases remarkable curatorial visions and artist selections that reflect the diversity and depth of the region’s artistic landscape. Here are some standout gallery presentations defining the fair’s third edition.
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art’s Tyeb Mehta Retrospective: Bearing Weight, Embodying Transcendence
The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, in partnership with the Tyeb Mehta Foundation and Saffronart Foundation, presents a major solo exhibition titled TYEB MEHTA – Bearing Weight (with the lightness of being), commemorating the birth centenary of one of India’s most iconic modernists. This presentation serves as a prelude to a forthcoming full retrospective at KNMA’s New Delhi location, opening 4 February 2026, coinciding with India Art Fair 2026.
The exhibition brings together Tyeb Mehta’s most celebrated series alongside early drawings and paintings. The works that have defined seven decades of artistic practice reflecting on the duality of humans and non-humans, their pain, conflict, and endurance. Born in 1925 in Kapadvanj, Gujarat, Mehta’s artistic language developed through his association with the Progressive Artists’ Group and his studies at the Sir JJ School of Art, Bombay (now Mumbai) beginning in 1947. His iconic subjects, bulls, rickshaw pullers, birds, Mahishasura, Kali, and the Trojan Women are suspended between descent and transcendence, embodying the fragility and resilience of existence. The Trussed Bull series transforms the animal of burden into an icon symbolizing colossal, restrained energy and the human condition caught between trauma and transcendence, while the Falling Figures series bears the weight of memory and grief, reminding viewers of the fragility of survival.
The exhibition runs through 30 November 2025 at Saffronart gallery, Mumbai, following its presentation at Art Mumbai, before moving to the full retrospective at KNMA, New Delhi. This comprehensive presentation reaffirms Mehta’s legacy as a signal figure who held space for humanity through both his art and life.
Anant Art’s Ten-Artist Retrospective: Weaving Personal and Political Narratives
At Booth C52, Anant Art presents a compelling multi-disciplinary exhibition bringing together ten contemporary artists—Abhishek Narayan Verma, Aditya Puthur, Alexander Gorlizki, Arti Vijay Kadam, Digbijayee Khatua, Jatinder Singh Durhailay, Laxmipriya Panigrahi, Thamshangpha Maku, Tito Stanley S J, and Vikrant Bhise—whose practices intersect personal history, material form, and collective experience. The New Delhi-based gallery, established in 2004 by Mamta Singhania, has long been instrumental in championing innovative practices across South Asia, and this presentation exemplifies that commitment.
The exhibition seamlessly blends painting, sculpture, and mixed media to explore how artists transform everyday life into spaces of inquiry and reflection. Across generations and geographies, the works engage with memory, labour, and identity, revealing how these themes are embedded in process and form.
Exhibit 320’s Material Innovation: Memory, Materiality, and Contemporary Consciousness
Making its third consecutive appearance at Art Mumbai since the fair’s inception, Exhibit 320 (Booth C54) presents a carefully curated selection of artists whose practices echo the dynamism and diversity of contemporary South Asian art. The New Delhi gallery, helmed by founder-director Rasika Kajaria, brings together six distinct artistic voices, each engaging deeply with materiality and conceptual inquiry.
Deepak Kumar’s meticulous realism dwells on time and memory within the ordinary, while sculptor Deena Pindoria merges architecture with questions of identity and structure. Kaushik Saha’s textured abstractions trace the pulse of emotion and city life, while Kumaresan Selvraj distils geometry into quiet meditations on space and perception. Ceramicist Rahul Kumar’s engagement with clay reveals the tension between resilience and fragility, and Richa Arya’s installation work, featured in the fair’s all-women sculptural park transmogrifies industrial metal sheets into embroidered surfaces, reinterpreting feminised labour as an act of resilience and collective defiance. Together, these artists navigate memory, material, and the shifting conditions of lived experience, collectively speaking to the nuanced concerns of contemporary South Asian artistic practice.
The Art Mumbai Sculpture Park: A Monumental Celebration of Women Sculptors
Beyond individual gallery presentations, Art Mumbai 2025 introduces an ambitious curatorial focus—a dedicated Sculpture Park celebrating pioneering and emerging women sculptors transforming contemporary practice. Set against the open expanse of the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, the Sculpture Park transforms the venue into an immersive journey where monumental installations meet intimate, tactile encounters, blurring traditional boundaries between viewer and artwork.
Featuring nineteen artists—including Adeela Suleiman, Chetnaa, Madhvi Parekh, Meera Mukherjee, Natasha Singh, Poojan Gupta, Radhika Hamlai, Ratnabali Kant, Richa Arya, Savia Mahajan, Shambhavi Singh, Shanthamani Muddaiah, Shiffali Wadhawan, Tapasya Gupta, Sonal Ambani, Sudipta Das, Tarini Sethi, Tayeba Begum Lipi, and Vinita Mungi—the park explores themes of identity, labour, migration, reclamation, and collective memory through diverse materials including ceramic, steel, bronze, fibreglass, and found objects. Many works invite visitors to move through and interact with the pieces, creating a participatory, sensory experience that redefines audience engagement with sculpture. This curatorial intervention stands as a rare opportunity to experience outdoor installations that transcend traditional white-cube gallery spaces, merging urban and natural environments with personal and collective histories to create a reflective and transformative experience.
As Art Mumbai enters its third edition, the fair has established itself as an anchor on the global art calendar. Co-founders Minal Vazirani, Dinesh Vazirani, Conor Macklin, and Nakul Dev Chawla continue to champion inclusivity, creativity, and cross-cultural exchange, reflecting how South Asia’s artists are shaping global conversations. The growing participation of international galleries and strong visitor attendance underscore the fair’s significance in the region’s cultural ecosystem.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
