The National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, in association with Gallerie Splash, unveils a major retrospective titled Naina Dalal: The Silent Fire Within, celebrating over sixty years of drawings, paintings, and prints by one of India’s foremost women artists, Naina Dalal. The exhibition is on view at the iconic Sir Cowasji Jehangir Hall, NGMA Mumbai, from September 12 to October 12, 2025. Curated under the expert guidance of Girish Shahane, this much-anticipated event shines a light on a lifetime of artistic brilliance that has often remained in the quiet margins of mainstream art history.
On Naina Dalal’s Art
With over a hundred works spanning six decades, Naina Dalal: The Silent Fire Within is a rare convergence of painting, drawing, and printmaking, showcasing Dalal’s profound sensitivity and technical command. Born in Vadodara in 1935 and trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, Dalal’s artistic journey also led her to specialized studies in lithography in London and printmaking at Pratt Graphic Center, New York.
Artwork featured: Naina Dalal | Couple V | Collagraph | 24 x 33 cm
As NGMA’s Director Nidhi Choudhari notes, “This exhibition brings together an extensive body of her drawings, paintings and prints, offering audiences a rare opportunity to engage with a lifetime of creative exploration that spans more than six decades… Her art speaks both of personal vision and collective realities, making her contribution to modern Indian art vital and enduring.”
Dalal’s artistic practice, anchored in both figuration and abstraction, intertwines personal memory with wider social commentary — particularly concerning women’s lived experiences. Ordinary objects become luminous, and every surface pulses with her quiet but insistent vision. Influenced by Käthe Kollwitz, Emil Nolde, Picasso, and the German Expressionists, Dalal’s work is “marked by bold figuration, expressive surfaces, and the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary.”
Artworks featured: Naina Dalal | Mourners | Oil on canvas | 118 x 91 cm & Naina Dalal | Untitled | Paper | 39 x 29 cm
As Gallerie Splash Director Jinoy Payyappilly emphasizes, “Dalal’s works stand as a testament to persistence, quiet intensity, and the power of art to illuminate overlooked voices. Her painterly sensibility and groundbreaking contributions to printmaking resist easy categorisation. Instead, they remind us that art can be both personal and universal, intimate yet socially engaged.”
Curatorial Vision
Curatorial Advisor Girish Shahane remarks on Dalal’s under-acknowledged yet crucial role in Indian modernism: “Naina Dalal’s oeuvre occupies a vital but under-acknowledged space in the story of Indian modernism. At a time when women artists were a minority in the field, she persevered with quiet intensity, forging a path across painting and printmaking with equal mastery.”
Exhibition Details
Naina Dalal: The Silent Fire Within
On View: 12th September – 12th October 2025
Venue: National Gallery of Modern Art, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Hall, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai
Curatorial Advisor: Girish Shahane
Presented By: NGMA Mumbai and Gallerie Splash
The exhibition brings to the fore Dalal’s technical virtuosity across etching, aquatint, collagraphy, lithography, and painting. In both her paintings and prints, she demonstrates a masterful interplay between experimentation and social conscience, consistently centering the human condition with empathy and originality.
Cover image: Naina Dalal | Reclining Woman | Collagraph | 28 x 35 cm
All images courtesy of the artist.
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