India is prominently represented in ArtReview’s Power 100 for 2025, highlighting individuals who have shaped South Asian and global art landscapes through collecting, curating, and institution-building . Kiran Nadar, Natasha Ginwala, Bose Krishnamachari, Prateek & Priyanka Raja, and the Raqs Media Collective embody the country’s growing influence and ongoing commitment to contemporary art.
Kiran Nadar: Collector and Patron
At rank 18, Kiran Nadar’s impact stems from her vast collection, over 14,000 works spanning India’s modern and contemporary history and the evolving Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), a David Adjaye-designed project soon opening its new building in Delhi . Her museum presents major international art projects but consistently foregrounds South Asian voices, including landmark acquisitions like M.F. Husain’s “Untitled (Gram Yatra)” (1954), and shows with the Italian Embassy featuring Caravaggio. Nadar’s partnerships with global institutions such as MoMA, the Met, Pompidou, Tate, and Qatar Museums position Indian art in critical international dialogues. Notably, the KNMA’s immersive Husain show traveled from Venice to Qatar, marking Indian modernism’s global reach .
Natasha Ginwala: Curator
Ranked 39, Natasha Ginwala drives transnational and subaltern representation as artistic director of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka’s leading contemporary arts festival, and as a curator for the Sharjah Biennial. Her collaborative projects unite artists from conflict regions like Nepal’s Terai and India’s Bhil community. Ginwala’s recent London group exhibition brought these voices to wider attention, and her work at the Sharjah Biennial, leading an all-women curator team, featured 650 works, emphasizing emotional and lived experience as curatorial principles. She is instrumental in mapping South Asia’s evolving cultural networks .
Bose Krishnamachari: Biennale Visionary
At 52, Krishnamachari remains central to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale’s evolution, India’s foremost art biennial. For its sixth edition, he champions “slowness”, fewer, more local artists, and deeper conversations responding to turbulent recent years and a shifting global art zeitgeist. Krishnamachari, also an exhibiting artist, describes his inclusion in the Power 100 as testament to the “people’s biennale” and its collective energy. He praises the Biennale’s alumni, including advisory council member Kiran Nadar and gallerists Priyanka and Prateek Raja, for sustaining India’s art ecosystem .
Prateek & Priyanka Raja: Gallerists and Collectors
At rank 59, Prateek and Priyanka Raja’s Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata and Mumbai amplifies South Asian and global narratives, hosting shows on colonial histories, Indigenous art, and contemporary dance. Their approach eschews luxury, investing in production funds, education, and transnational exhibitions with artists such as CAMP at MoMA and commissions in London and New York. The gallery’s Curators’ Hub draws participants from institutions in Basel, New York, and Dakar, supporting curatorial and critical discourse .
Raqs Media Collective: Artists
Ranked 76, Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) have shaped artistic hybridity in India for three decades. Their practice spans making, curating, teaching, and writing; recent projects include investigating AI’s creative potential in Chicago and presenting new propositions on the human condition in Hong Kong. Beyond exhibitions, their presence in international triennials, design competitions, and essay writing maintains their status at the nexus of Indian and global contemporary thought .
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
