Kolkata Hosts Sohrab Hura’s The Forest: Memory, Media and Intimacy on View

October 19, 2025

Sohrab Hura’s The Forest is his third solo at Experimenter Ballygunge Place, Kolkata. It is a corpus of fresh oil paintings, etchings on paper, and a video to chart the frame of mind and create an imagery. The title of the exhibition, The Forest, gestures to a range of terrains situated in the compact frames of the painter. It depicts a site of refuge and concealment, but also signifies a space where waiting becomes an act of possibility. The artworks are drawn from a continuing series of oil paintings and smaller artworks on paper that depict vibrance and diversity.

The Works and Media: the Pellet & Epiphany

Visually, The Forest accentuates tangibility. Hura neutralizes the sped-up image economy of our social media feeds and television memories with pastels, gouache, and oils that demand a more gradual and slower attention to detail. Surfaces of the paintings retain traces of the hand rather than the monotony of an algorithm. Small-scale works on paper sit alongside more significant canvases and a moving-image piece, creating a rhythm that essentially seeks total physical navigation in the gallery space. This creates an enveloping factor that churns the creative quotient in the minds of the spectators, making them halt, think, and analyze.

Themes & Motifs

Across press material and social posts, Experimenter highlights the sources informing Hura’s imagery; it includes the most contemporary phenomena, i.e., sharing memes, the compactness of social media algorithms, along with personal history and political events. These elements are amalgamated into the canvas, not simply as didactic commentaries, but as sediments of contemporary consciousness. The media we ingest, the family traces we carry, and the political moments that puncture ordinary days, everything finds space in Hura’s paintings. These works manifest a voice in all these themes and locate them through recurring forms that might be trees, bodies, or rooms, allowing a slippage between interior and exterior, image and recollection. It not only signifies the black and white part of society, but equally reflects on the greys.

Installation & Viewing Experience

Tracing the previous exhibitions of Hura in the same venue, one can deduce that the comfort of the artist probably lies within a dense photo-grid setup, which is more measured and offers adequate hanging schemes. This time, for The Forest, the interplay of small works on paper with the larger oil canvases, accompanied by the video, implies an exhibition exclusively designed for repeated viewing rather than a one-pass glance.

Sohrab Hura’s Evolving Practice

As the painter moves between photography, painting, video, and publishing (through Ugly Dog Books), he has gained the label of a “shapeshifter”. His recent institutional attention includes a recent US survey and critical recognition in 2024–25, framing The Forest as a very productive moment in his career, where storytelling, memory, and intimacy are tied together and presented through papers and canvases. This exhibition, then, is both a continuation and a recalibration of an artist known for photographic narratives, now insisting that paint can slow the images we mistake for understanding.

Event	Details
Art Exhibition	Sohrab Hura’s The Forest
Dates & Venue	5 November 2025 – 3 January 2026, Experimenter — Ballygunge Place, Kolkata.
Media	New oil paintings, works on paper (gouache/pastel), and video.
Principal Themes	Media memories (TV, memes), social algorithms, family intimacies, political traces.
Viewing Strategy	Intimate hanging with a pace that encourages slowness and repeated looking.
Artist Context	Part of Hura’s ongoing, multi-format practice encompassing publishing, photography, and painting.

Key highlights

The exhibition brings together fresh oil paintings alongside recent works on paper and a video, offering a multi-sensory field of images.
Hura foregrounds “waiting” and slowness: paint and paper are used to resist the habitual scanning encouraged by digital feeds.
Recurring motifs — ambiguous trees, domestic scenes, partial figures — open onto several narrative possibilities rather than resolving into a single story.
The show is positioned as Hura’s third solo at Experimenter in Kolkata and continues his engagement with intimate archival impulses.

Takeaway: Why The Forest matters now

The present world is saturated with instant images and prompt-based AI-generated works.
It kind of pushes us as humans to a point where we don’t wish to put effort in certain cases, creating a negative comfort zone around us that also functions as a rampart around our creative conscience. It is in this context that Sohrab Hura’s The Forest matters because it stages a small, insistently human countermeasure to automation. The paintings’ tryst with the viewers’ specs makes time slow down; it gives the spectators a space to not only analyze the painting, but also spend quality time with themselves. For the audience in Kolkata, this exhibition offers a rare loop-back from the screen to the hand, inviting them to treat images as a place to confide, not to scroll through. The world is so interconnected that losing a point of contact would mean literally missing out on everything under the sun. Social media has turned the world into a more reachable place; however, it is equally a necessary evil. Through these paintings, the artist wants us to be judicious in what we choose to consume and let others consume; he wants us to be more accountable towards ourselves by allowing our own selves the time to renew attention and have meaningful memories laid throughout the trail called life.

Kala Ghoda Arts Festival Opens Entries for Children’s Installation Competition 2026

Kriti Sen

October 18, 2025

Announcement & Call to Schools

The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF) has formally opened registrations for The Kala Ghoda Children’s Installation Competition 2026, issuing a compelling appeal across social media platforms. Their recent upload encourages schools to participate by celebrating creativity and imagination, inviting the first 25 institutions to help shape the festival through their students’ artistic expressions and transform innovative ideas into iconic installations. The message is a direct call to Mumbai’s education and arts community to sign up early and stake a place in the festival’s children’s purlieus.

Festival Dates & Where It Fits in KGAF

The children’s installations will be part of KGAF’s nine-day event, scheduled from 31 January to 8 February 2026. During this period, the Kala Ghoda vicinity transitions into an open-air cultural campus of visual art, theatre, music, and family programming. The installations are displayed alongside workshops, storytelling slots, and guided tours designed to engage visiting families and school groups in this vibrant environment.

How to Apply & What are the requirements?

KGAF’s call asks schools to submit a concise proposal with a concept note, age groups involved, materials list, timelines, and supervision plans. It is important to note that participation will be confirmed via a first-come, first-served policy, i.e., only the first 25 schools to register will be accepted for the installation programme in 2026. While KGAF provides curatorial supervision, site permissions, and on-ground coordination, the conceptualisation and arrangement responsibilities rest primarily with the schools, which are often supported by parents, alumni, and local artisans.

Public Reach & Past Precedents

Student installations at Kala Ghoda have historically been among the festival’s most photographed and shared elements. Past entries have ranged from tangible, playground-like sculptures that are highly conceptually driven pieces addressing topics like ecology, urban life, and civic matters. These projects exhibit a dual role; they provide a platform for the budding young children to showcase their creativity and shape their imaginative quotient, and they also teach students the responsibilities that are bestowed through public art by promoting safety, accessibility, and communication.

Quick Details for Schools	Key Information
Registration Policy	Only the first 25 schools will be accepted for 2026 participation.
Festival Dates	31 January – 8 February 2026 (9-day Kala Ghoda Arts Festival).
Proposal Requirements	Concept note, age group, materials list, timeline, supervision plan, and transport logistics.
Support Provided	Curatorial guidance, site permissions, and on-ground coordination from KGAF.
Recommended Materials	Sustainable, reusable, and child-safe materials for public interaction.
Installation Locations	Across the Kala Ghoda precinct — museum lawns and public greens.
Collaborations	Encouraged with parents, alumni, and local artisans for fabrication and support.
Registration Form 2026 (For Schools only)	Link to the Form

Key Highlights

KGAF 2026 has opened registrations for the Children’s Installation Competition; only the first 25 schools will be shortlisted.
Installations will be on view across the Kala Ghoda precinct during the nine-day festival (31 Jan–8 Feb 2026).
The programme functions as a cross-disciplinary learning laboratory — design, fabrication, and public-safety practices are integral.
KGAF offers curatorial and logistical assistance; schools lead concept development and build.
Past children’s installations have generated strong public engagement and media visibility for participating schools.

What Schools & Educators Stand to Gain

For schools, the competition is a great public platform to boost and showcase their students’ work. It democratizes the confined teaching-learning process in classrooms and makes students enter the city’s everyday visual landscape. The process fosters collaboration across departments, invites community partnerships, and provides a visible reward for sustained effort. For students, seeing their concept realised at scale reinforces that art can be a civic practice, not only a classroom exercise.

Takeaway

The Kala Ghoda Children’s Installation Competition remains one of Mumbai’s most fruitful assimilation of inculcation and public art. It teaches pragmatic skills to children while staging young voices in the urban core. That said, the “first-25” rule, though understandable for logistical reasons, potentially risks leaving many deserving schools out of its creative framework. KGAF might consider piloting satellite shows, rotating slots, or might as well arrange a parallel digital exhibition to make its base broader and inclusive. Expanding participation would not dilute the festival’s standards; it would deepen its civic promise.

The Invention of Light: Caravaggio’s Magdalene in Ecstasy Arrives in Mumbai

Kriti Sen

October 18, 2025

A compact but exhilarating canvas ascribed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Magdalene in Ecstasy, is on view at Mumbai’s Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum as part of an exhibition titled L’invenzione della luce (The Invention of Light). The exhibition, presented by the Museum in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Mumbai, runs from 16 October to 2 November 2025, offering Indian specs a rare and proximate encounter with a work by the Italian Baroque master. The exhibition successfully brings a celebrated masterwork, cross-cultural dialogue, and diplomatic theatre to Mumbai.

Why does the painting still stop viewers in their tracks?

Painted around 1606 during a tempestuous phase in Caravaggio’s life, the Magdalene is a manifestation of a complex set of emotions, packed in the skeleton of this piece. It represents a figure caught between worldly melancholy and rhapsody. This painting is essentially brought to light through the then-innovative technique of ‘light and shadow’. For contemporary viewers, well acquainted with high definition visuals and imagery, this painting, with a sense of restraint, muted tones, and harsh light, demands a different perspective to deploy. It seeks a purview that includes attention to texture, breath, and most importantly, the sense of psychological interiority.

En-route to Public Spectacle

This particular version of the Magdalene has travelled a boisterous pathway into the public frame. It arose from private hands and was the subject of plenty of authentication debates in the 2010s; some experts have acknowledged it as Caravaggio, while others continued with their reservations, making its display in India as much an art-historical talking point as a public draw. The painting has already been displayed once at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, and now its stop is in Mumbai, which is considered by many as both a cultural milestone and an aggravation for scholarly scrutiny.

A dialogue across centuries

While on display, the organisers have resisted identifying this painting as the sole trophy frame. So instead of exclusively showcasing this as a priced foreign artwork, the curators, Andrea Anastasio and Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, consciously chose to place Magdalene in Ecstasy beside Indian devotional paintings, especially those by M. V. Dhurandhar. This step marks the resonance around illumination, devotion, and embodiment. The thoughtful juxtaposition reimagines light not just as an achievement by the European artists but as a syncretic idiom of transcendence and feeling. It pushes the viewers to spectate the affinities and disharmonies between the spiritual depictions of two distinct cultures.

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Diplomacy, museum policy, and Mumbai’s cultural moment

Beyond the gallery, the exhibition is conducting a reception of cultural diplomacy. Walter Ferrara, India’s Consul General of Italy in Mumbai, praised the initiative as a milestone for Italian-Indian museum ties, indicating an appetite for future institutional collaborations through loans, conservation exchange, and scholarly partnerships. These initiatives ought to go beyond being trivial shows. At the same time, the arrival of this painting is treated as a civic moment for Mumbai’s cultural life.

Key Items	Details
Artwork	Magdalene in Ecstasy (attributed to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio; c.1606)
Exhibition Title	L’invenzione della luce (The Invention of Light)
Venue & Dates	Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai — 16 October to 2 November 2025
Organisers	Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Consulate General of Italy, and Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai
Curators	Andrea Anastasio & Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
Previous Indian Exhibitions	Previously displayed at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

Highlights — what to watch for on your visit

The Magdalene’s concentrated chiaroscuro and compressed composition—Caravaggio’s visual drama in miniature.
Curatorial pairing with M. V. Dhurandhar: formal echoes of light, gesture, and devotional sentiment invite cross-cultural readings.
Ongoing provenance and attribution conversation among specialists — the exhibit functions as both public display and scholarly prompt.
The diplomatic framing: the Consulate and Italian cultural bodies foreground conservation and institutional exchange as next steps.
Rich photographic coverage and strong visitor turnout were reported by the local press, suggesting a broad public appetite for such cross-border loans.

Takeaway

It would have been an easy choice for the organisers to highlight the Caravaggio as the glittering import to evoke civic pride. Instead, the Mumbai presentation opts for a subtle, risky orchestration by situating the artwork among towering Indian pieces. It ought to stir queries among Indian spectators and compel them to read and re-read the painting in the company of the Indian artworks. The quality of this act of defiance, to be examined in isolation, transforms the theme into a cultural partnership between two nations. The success of this exhibition can’t be measured solely by footfall or Instagram frames; the main fact of its success lies in what follows the event. The projected ambitions of transparent provenance disclosure, reciprocal loans that carry Indian art to European institutions, and actual conservation and curatorial partnerships are the true markers of its success, given that it takes place as it is mentioned. If the Magdalene’s short stay here sparks that correlation, then this small, luminous painting will have punched far above its size as a true ambassador of cross-cultural curiosity.

Dhanteras 2025: Date, Puja Timings, Rituals, and Auspicious Shopping Guide

Kriti Sen

October 18, 2025

The Significance of Dhanteras in Diwali Festivities

Dhanteras (Dhanatrayodashi) marks the first day of the five-day Diwali festival, dedicated to wealth and well-being. It consists of two words- “Dhan” (wealth) and “Teras” (the thirteenth day of the lunar fortnight), referring to opulence ushered into the home. According to legend, during the Samudra Manthan, Goddess Lakshmi (the deity of wealth) and Lord Dhanvantari (the divine physician) emerged from the waters along with the nectar of immortality. Dhanteras thus associates wealth with health by celebrating Lakshmi’s bounty along with Dhanvantari’s healing blessings.

In one folk tale, a princess, to save her beloved prince from the clutches of Yama (the god of death), adorned the palace with heaps of gold and illuminated the royal abode with innumerable lamps to dazzle Yama. Lord Yama, manifested as a snake, upon arriving at the palace, was awed by the lights and jewelry and decided to retreat. This incident is considered the birth of the tradition of keeping lamps burning to ward off misfortune. Symbolically, the festival makes us inculcate the notion of light overcoming darkness and abundance repelling adversity.

With houses scrubbed clean, rangolis drawn at doorsteps, and oil lamps (diyas) lit everywhere, across India, Dhanteras initiates the preparations for Diwali. The rituals blend spirituality with the anticipation of material prosperity, reinforcing faith in abundance.

Dhanteras 2025 Date, Shubh Muhurat, and Puja Timings

Dhanteras 2025 falls on Saturday, October 18, 2025. According to the traditional Panchang (Hindu calendar), the Trayodashi Tithi (the 13th lunar day of Kartik Krishnapaksha) begins at 12:18 PM on Oct 18 and ends at 1:51 PM on Oct 19. The auspicious Pradosh Kaal (evening twilight period) runs from 5:48 PM to 8:20 PM IST on Oct 18, and within this, the prime Dhanteras Puja Muhurat is 7:16–8:20 PM. Astrologically, the period is known as Vrishabha Kaal (Taurus period), roughly 7:15–9:11 PM, and is considered most favorable for the Lakshmi-Dhanvantari puja. Vedic experts note that favorable planetary alignments (e.g., a strong Venus and Jupiter) make this year’s Dhanteras particularly potent for wealth-invoking rituals.

The most non-negotiable ritual is lighting lamps in the evening. Families light 12 diyas indoors and one special “Yamadeepam” outside at the main entrance. This honors Yama (Lord of Death) and is believed to protect loved ones from the wrath of death. The glowing diyas are said to repel negative energies and illuminate the path for Goddess Lakshmi’s holy steps into the home.

Traditional Rituals and Customs Observed on Dhanteras

The most rudimentary preparatory regime involves cleaning and decorating houses. With bright rangoli patterns designed along doorways, rows of earthen diyas and electric lights are placed to welcome the divine into the human abode. Often, altars are set up on elevated platforms facing the idol or image of Goddess Lakshmi, accompanied by Lord Ganesh. The two deities are also complemented by some representations of Lord Dhanvantri, and in some instances, even Lord Kubera is placed along. The sanctum of the gods is also elaborately decorated with flowers, a kalash (water pot topped with mango leaves and a coconut), and incense, symbolising abundance. As far as the offerings are concerned, rice, turmeric, kumkum powders, sweets, fruits, and currencies are used. Many people also offer gold or silver coins and new utensils or jewelry to signify wealth.

The puja vidhi (ritual procedure) typically begins by invoking Lord Ganesha to remove obstacles, as he’s referred to as ‘vighnaharta’. Mantras praising Lakshmi and Dhanvantari are recited as lamps are lit, mainly a ghee lamp, and the Dhanvantari mantra (“Om Dhanvantaraye Namaha”) is recited 108 times, praying for health and longevity. Prayers are followed by aarti, i.e., the ritual waving of lighted lamps. With the family singing the hymns seeking blessings, the aarti is separately performed for each deity. Business families often offer their account books to the goddess, symbolically inviting her to bless the year’s work.

After the puja, the blessed offerings are distributed to all members as prasad. Even after the puja is done, the Yamadeepam continues to burn throughout the night. Additionally, a four-faced mustard-oil lamp is placed in the southwestern corner outside the home to honor Yama and to ensure the family’s protection from accidents or death.

What to Buy on Dhanteras 2025: The Auspicious Shopping List

There is a tradition of purchasing new items on Dhanteras that symbolizes inviting wealth into one’s life. Gold and silver are considered the most auspicious purchases. People buy gold ornaments, coins, bars, or silverware, with the hope that it will multiply prosperity. Specific coins that are struck with images of Goddess Lakshmi or Lord Kubera are favoured.

Beyond metals, useful household items are also auspicious buys. Utensils, especially silver, brass, or copper, such as new kitchen pots, pans, or dishes, are believed to accoutre the home with wealth. That said, a popular belief is that anything acquired or purchased on Dhanteras brings affluence. In contemporary times, electronics and appliances are very much a part of items that are purchased by people on this occasion. Many people like to buy smartphones, laptops, televisions, or home appliances during this time. New furniture, home decor, or artifacts can also be bought to reinvigorate the facade of the household and induce an aura of positivity. Many devotees also bring home Lakshmi-Ganesha idols or pictures on Dhanteras to establish a permanent shrine at home. Modern gift ideas for Dhanteras include donating to the poor or gifting sweets, which is believed to multiply good karma. Many spiritual items, like a Kuber yantra or Dhanvantari yantra, are kept in the cash locker for obtaining blessings. New clothes and sweets or dry fruits for family and friends are also customary, as they symbolize sharing and spreading joy.

One must also be careful about the items to avoid. According to tradition, sharp objects (knives, scissors, needles) should not be bought on Dhanteras as they are believed to “cut” the flow of prosperity. Likewise, iron or steel utensils are generally avoided, as iron is associated with Shani (Saturn). Ghee and cooking oil, though essential, are said to be inauspicious to purchase on Dhanteras. Black or leather goods are also avoided, since black as a colour is often linked to negativity and leather to Saturn’s influence. In case pots or vessels are bought, it is generally suggested to bring them home filled with grains or sweets. To sum up, shopping during Dhanteras primarily focuses on items that signify wealth, health, and good fortune.

Cultural Beliefs and Regional Celebrations Across India

Dhanteras is a nationwide celebration, but its customs also differ due to regional variations. In the Northern core, the day is highly festive in vibe, with markets bustling as people purchase a variety of goods. Business communities, notably in Gujarat and Rajasthan, perform Chopda Pujan (also called Muhurat Pujan) on Dhanteras, opening new account books and offering prayers to Lakshmi and Ganesh for a prosperous financial year. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, the entire tithi is often dedicated to accounting rituals, and some also perform the Narakhanchi Pujan (worship of pots).

Across many regions, lighting the special Yamadeepam is practiced. For example, Maharashtrians place 13 oil lamps at home entrances on Dhanteras night to honor Yama. According to popular tales, the sunflower-like “Bhungroo” lamp pattern protects the household from accidents. In Maharashtra, families also recite the Yamadeep Stotra for long life. Similarly, in Gujarat and Rajasthan, households keep earthen lamps burning through the night, and some people tie a string of lamps (diya chain) outside to create an arch of light.

In South India, including Tamil Nadu, Dhanteras is comparatively less prominent by name but is observed through related customs. Homes are cleaned and decorated ahead of Diwali, and diya lighting in the evening is a common practice. In other South Indian states, the Naraka Chaturdasi (the main Diwali day) is the main highlight, but the spirit of Dhanteras lives on through lamps and prayers for health and wealth. Tamil families also prepare sweets and exchange gifts beginning on Dhanteras, viewing it as the beginning of the Diwali celebrations.

Thus, while the main practices, such as seeking blessings of wealth, health, and longevity, are constant, Dhanteras customs reflect India’s cultural diversity. In the Marwari and Gujarati business, for instance, Hindu offices often reschedule their work to perform the Chopda ceremony. Meanwhile, in Bengal or Odisha, the emphasis might be on thorough home cleaning and the Lakshmi-Ganesh puja. These regional variations underline how Dhanteras synchronizes local traditions with the pan-Indian festival of Diwali.

Dhanteras 2025: Key Timings and Festival Highlights Table

Event	Date & Time (IST)
Dhanteras 2025	Saturday, October 18, 2025
Trayodashi Tithi Begins	October 18, 2025 – 12:18 PM
Trayodashi Tithi Ends	October 19, 2025 – 01:51 PM
Pradosh Kaal	October 18, 2025 – 05:48 PM to 08:20 PM
Vrishabha Kaal	October 18, 2025 – 07:16 PM to 09:11 PM
Dhanteras Puja Muhurat	October 18, 2025 – 07:16 PM to 08:20 PM
Yama Deepam	October 18, 2025 – Evening lamp lighting ceremony

Table: Important timings for Dhanteras 2025 (India Standard Time). These highlight the auspicious periods (muhurat) for Lakshmi-Kubera-Dhanvantari puja and the traditional evening rituals.

Welcoming Prosperity with Light and Faith

Dhanteras meaningfully balances the material with the spiritual. On one hand, it motivates the pursuit of wealth and comfort through acts of buying gold, silver, and useful items, with the hope that these will bring prosperity and opulence. On the other hand, it bestows us with feelings of purity, devotion, and gratitude. This polyphony of bhakti and action combined commemorates the fact that true abundance comes from diligence, piety, and generosity as much as from possessions.

Dhanteras teaches that prosperity is initiated with light, both inner light and outer. The evening lamps are not merely pieces of decoration; they hold symbols that “light” penetrates through ignorance and negativity. In the present time, with everyone’s schedule fastened with haste, families get an opportunity to renew their bonds and responsibilities. As Diwali approaches, Dhanteras’s main aim is to invite well-being into our homes in a thoughtful manner. Celebrations should also make us more responsible; for example, using eco-friendly lamps and modest gift-giving makes the joy sustainable. In essence, Dhanteras invites us to nudge towards cleanliness, light, and loving devotion, so that genuine wealth (of health, happiness, and harmony) is kindled in our lives.

FAQs on Dhanteras 2025

Question: What is the date of Dhanteras in 2025?

Answer: Dhanteras 2025 will be observed on Saturday, October 18, 2025.

Question: What should we buy on Dhanteras for good luck?

Answer: Auspicious purchases include gold or silver coins and jewellery, silver or brass utensils, and idols of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha. Buying new appliances, electronics, or home décor items is also considered lucky on this day.

Question: What is the spiritual significance of lighting lamps on Dhanteras?

Answer: Lighting diyas in the evening drives away darkness and negativity while inviting the blessings of Goddess Lakshmi. The ritual is also linked to the legend of Lord Yama — the lamps are believed to protect the household from untimely death and bring harmony and health.

Question: Which God is worshipped during Dhanteras?

Answer: On Dhanteras, devotees worship Goddess Lakshmi for wealth, Lord Kubera for prosperity, and Lord Dhanvantari for good health. Lord Ganesha is invoked at the start of the puja to remove obstacles and ensure an auspicious beginning.

Question: Can we buy iron or sharp objects on Dhanteras?

Answer: No. It is considered inauspicious to buy iron or sharp metal objects such as knives, scissors, or needles on Dhanteras. These are believed to symbolically “cut” prosperity. Instead, purchase gold, silver, or brass items to attract good fortune.

Kochi Biennale Foundation Announces Co-Curators for Students’ Biennale 2025

Kriti Sen

October 17, 2025

The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) has announced the roster of co-curators and collectives who will lead the Students’ Biennale 2025–26, a flagship educational programme that brings together emerging artists from state-funded art colleges with curators, mentors, and peer networks. The Students’ Biennale, which concentrates on learning from practice, collaboration, and alternatives to market-oriented approaches, will open on 13 December 2025, running in parallel with the sixth Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

Curators, Geography & Mentorship Model

This edition revolves around seven regions: teams of co-curators and collectives will engage directly with students from 150+ institutions, conducting workshops, shortlisting participants, and initiating and coordinating projects in Kochi. The named co-curators include Savyasachi, Anju, Prabir and Sukanya Deb for the north and west; Dr. Sudheesh Kottembram and Dr. Seethal CP for the south; Chinar Shah and Ashok Vish for the south-west; Kursheed Ahmed and Salman Basheer Baba for the mountain states; the artists-collective Gabba (Ritushree Mondal, Himangshu Sarma, Rabiul Khan and Surajit Mudi) for the eastern belt; Anga Art Collective for the seven north-eastern states and Sikkim; and Secular Art Collective (Salik Ansari, Bhushan Bhombale, Shamim Khan and Shamooda Amrelia) for central and western India. The Kochi Biennale Foundation mentions that the model is intended to have sustained, peer-to-peer conversations rather than one-off selection panels.

Sixth Kochi-Muziris Biennale

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The Students’ Biennale will run parallel to the sixth Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), christened as ‘For the Time Being’, which will be inaugurated on 12 December 2025 and shall run till 31 March 2026. The larger biennale this year is curated by Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces and puts forward a detailed programme of exhibitions, performances, residencies, and educational events; recent coverage indicates a queue of international artists and a programme that stresses process, networks, and on-site work.

What Organisers Say?

Mario D’Souza, Director of Programmes at KBF, oriented the Students’ Biennale as a collaborative learning exercise: “Each edition of the Students’ Biennale is a learning exercise. We work with students, educators, curators, and artists to understand the needs and shortcomings of art education in India.” He added that this edition focuses on “other forms of nourishing practice” outside market and grant economies. For example, artist-run initiatives, residency models, collective practices, teaching, and self-publishing to build an well knit artist-to-artist network that responds to the present.

Scheduled Events	Details
Students’ Biennale Opening	13 December 2025 (runs alongside Kochi-Muziris Biennale).
Kochi-Muziris Biennale Dates	12 December 2025 – 31 March 2026; 6th edition titled For the Time Being.
Number of Colleges / Institutions	Over 150 state-funded art colleges participating across seven regions.
Regional Co-Curator Teams	Includes Savyasachi, Anju, Prabir, Gabba Collective, Anga Art Collective, and others.
Media Contact	Akhilesh V K, Media Executive, MD Niche — 9895129611 (press release).

Education, Access & Practice

The Students’ Biennale has turned out to be one of the few large-scale initiatives in India that explicitly links art training to varied modes of artistic practice. By partnering with state-funded colleges, they are deploying a decentralised curation model. KBF aims to acknowledge voices outside the peripheries of metropolitan nexuses and to give students both a public platform and curatorial mentorship. The emphasis on peer networks, residencies, and artist-run frameworks signals an attempt to bridge classroom learning with the live activity-based learning, contemporary artistic work.

Access & Practice

The Students’ Biennale has become one of the few large-scale initiatives in India that explicitly links formal art training to alternative modes of artistic practice. By partnering with state-funded colleges and deploying a decentralised curation model, KBF aims to surface voices outside established metropolitan circuits and to give students both a public platform and curatorial mentorship. The emphasis on peer networks, residencies, and artist-run frameworks signals an attempt to bridge classroom learning with the lived, often precarious, economies of contemporary artistic work.

Key highlights

Students’ Biennale exhibition opens on 13 December 2025, concurrent with KMB.
Over 150 state-funded art colleges to participate across seven regions.
Regional teams include individual curators and collectives (Gabba, Anga Art Collective, Secular Art Collective, among them).
The sixth Kochi-Muziris Biennale (For the Time Being) is curated by Nikhil Chopra with HH Art Spaces and runs 12 Dec 2025 – 31 Mar 2026.
Programme focus: alternative pedagogies, artist-to-artist networks, and practice-based learning outside market structures.
Recent press and listings indicate the KMB 2025 edition will present dozens of international and Indian artists across multiple venues in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, with expanded programming (talks, residencies, workshops) that the Students’ Biennale will plug into.

Takeaway

The Kochi Biennale Foundation’s Students’ Biennale remains one of India’s most crucial experiments in integrating formal art education to the pragmatic shuffle of artistic life. It will offer young practitioners mentorship, public exposure, and a golden scope to experiment with their ideas within a city-wide ecosystem. That said, unlocking its full potential will require more than high-profile curators and surface-level workshops, but sustained funding for follow-up projects, transparency in selection criteria and procedure, post-biennale support, and accountability. If KBF truly wants to imagine alternatives to market dependency, then this programme must become a long-term success and simply not a biennial moment, for talent, experimentation, and structural change in arts education across India.

Sitaro Ki Diwali: Phoenix India Light Festival 2025 Illuminates Bengaluru’s Urban Canvas

Kriti Sen

October 17, 2025

This Diwali, the usual cavalcade of diyas and fairy lights has been refracted through a more theatrical lens. The Phoenix Mall of Asia’s India Light Festival 2.0, Sitaro Ki Diwali, has returned with a robust and more picturesque goal. Based in Bengaluru, the festival was launched during Navratri. The light festival is totally on board to illuminate the space and disperse the festive vibe. It re-envisions the mall’s central plaza as a stage where large-scale light sculptures, kinetic LEDs, and sculptural archways will bestow the most engrossing engagement to the people. Apart from this, they also gather people, prompt photographs, and, briefly, make the ordinary feel astonishing.

The Theme

Hitherto, the decor’s yearly resonance was with repetitive props and motifs; however, ILF 2025 did bring innovation to the table. This festive season, they traded the in-box familiarity for an experiential rendezvous. The theme for this year is Rhythms of Reverie, where light sequences behave like musical notes, and walkways respond to motion, and the roof is suspended with stars, which will definitely turn heads. Each installation is displayed with a purpose, and each piece appears to be self-contained and photogenic. Individually, each display appears like a short scene in itself; however, it is the cumulative effect that lingers.

The festival positions itself not as retail theatre but as a public artwork that happens to sit inside a mall.

The Four Signature Installations

Four classic environment simulations anchor the show. At first, there’s a towering aurora portal christened as ‘echoes’ with programmable LEDs, which is best for Instagrammable snapshots that feel like standing at the brink of entering a totally different time-space. Following it is the tunnel of colours, which overturns the simple act of walking through it into a performance. Beams of light layer up and shift so that each footfall can be displayed with a new palette. Then there’s Dreamscape, a maze of gradients and net-like lights that makes people slow down and lose orientation. It offers the experience of walking through a constellation, beautiful and immersive. Also, Chasing Stars is an overhead procession of warm-lit stars and arcs that feels like an urban night-sky, only more deliberate, and undeniably manufactured.

Installation	What it does
Echoes	Aurora portal of programmable LEDs that appears cinematic, doorway-like, and excellent for photos.
Tunnel of Colour	A coloured-beam walkway that changes with movement; playful, immersive, and kinetic.
Dreamscape	A woven, galaxy-inspired maze — contemplative and gently disorienting.
Chasing Stars	Overhead arches of warm lights and stars create a communal, starlit canopy.

An Invitation to All — Art for Everyone

Beyond the awe-inducing visuals, the festival’s democratic gesture is its accessibility. The installations are free and open to the public, inviting families, couples, and neighbourhood crowds to make the mall their Diwali mosey. That accessibility is very thoughtful as the festival’s organisers have labelled ILF as a ‘civic offering’ as much as a commercial attraction, which, in a city that stages pop-up experiences and Diwali markets every year, gives this installation a competitive edge as a cultural destination.

Ritu Mehta, Centre Director at Phoenix Mall of Asia, frames ILF 2025 as an experiment in scale and feeling. “Phoenix India Light Festival 2025 is one of the most unique, immersive, experiential festivals of its kind in India, blending art, technology, and imagination into a celebration that sparks wonder for every visitor,” she says.

Phoenix Mall as Bengaluru’s Cultural Trailblazer

The Phoenix Mall now appears to be an example for all the malls and shopping stops in Bengaluru, as they have distinctly emerged as a trailblazer for inventive festive programming in recent years, turning retail spaces into seasonal hubs of art and culture. The festival also finds itself fitting into a broader setup, as the city’s people desire some leisure and fun during the festive time, ILF offers them a spectacular blend of experiences with easy accessibility, making it the all-around spot to shop, eat, and then drift straight to the illuminated installations. These artworks are intended for quick consumption and repeat pictures, reels, and posts tagged from the plaza; this suggests the festival is succeeding at what it set out to do: be seen, shared, and re-seen. What ILF 2025 offers, skilfully, is an encounter tuned to both the eye and the feed, a seasonal work that admits its reliance on spectacle while still offering genuine moments of collective delight.

Where Tradition Meets Urban Modernity

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A city that gets adorned with a plethora of Diwali attractions, Sitaro Ki Diwali stands out for the craft of its staging and the freedom of its access. It is neither a colossal museum piece nor a shallow marketing stunt; it squeezes itself in, satisfyingly, somewhere between public art and seasonal entertainment. For anyone plotting the new rituals of urban Indian Diwali, where shopping, social media, and communal light shows come together, the Phoenix India Light Festival is a great spot to crash in.

Highlights

Free, public, and experiential — ILF 2025 transforms the mall plaza into an accessible cultural destination.
Four signature installations (Echoes, Tunnel of Colour, Dreamscape, Chasing Stars) create distinct sensory scenes that encourage movement and lingering.
The festival’s theme, Rhythms of Reverie, links soundlike light choreography with contemplative moments, balancing spectacle with subtlety.
Designed for both in-person wonder and social sharing, the installations are highly photogenic without entirely sacrificing tactile engagement.
Position Phoenix Mall of Asia as a seasonal cultural hub in Bengaluru, reflecting how retail spaces now double as sites for public art and communal ritual.

Takeaway

Sitaro Ki Diwali feels exactly like a generous, well-orchestrated piece of an urban theatre-like setup that understands the conventions of our mediated festivals. With time, people’s preferences and choices shift, making celebrations absorb new-age angles. The whole execution of ILF is very inclusive in this aspect as it spectates the new age festive season as a space of joy and leisure, and thus, curates a cozy spot for all kinds of people to walk in. It is unapologetically a great experience and not simply performative. This form of civic art shall proliferate elsewhere in India within the urban landscape, so that people get to see a different shade of the festive season. Still, as a Diwali proposition for a city that loves both light and an audience, ILF 2025 delivers warmth, craft, and a pleasingly luminous idea of togetherness. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Diwali.

Navi Mumbai to Launch India’s First Waste-to-Art Lab at CBD Belapur

Kriti Sen

October 16, 2025

Navi Mumbai is on track to make history with the creation of India’s first Waste-to-Art Lab at CBD Belapur. The Upcycling Art Training Centre will be housed beneath the Sector 21 flyover in CBD Belapur and is designed to process about 200 tonnes of dry waste each month. As the municipal officials stated, the lab will literally “transform discarded materials into artistic sculptures that will beautify public spaces across the city,” bestowing a second life to plastics, scrap metal, and other recyclables. In practice, this means turning discarded useless garbage into public art installations that will be used to decorate parks, plazas, and landmarks, reflecting Navi Mumbai’s commitment to environmental responsibility while maintaining its urban aesthetics.

Art Meets Sustainability

The city’s accent is on merging waste management with creativity. Commissioner Dr. Kailas Shinde asseverated that Navi Mumbai “has always been a pioneer in solid waste management and innovative recycling practices,” and that the new lab is not only designed to handle trash effectively but also “promote creativity and environmental awareness”. The Municipal Corporation is also participating in this noble cause by providing space and basic infrastructure, while the baling machines and equipment are taken care of by the private contractors. The sculptures produced will be used to adorn the cityscape, including parks, schools, colleges, and other public squares.

The NMMC will also run educational workshops, lectures, and awareness programmes in schools, colleges, and different housing societies to engage citizens, especially students and youths, in the act of recycling and environmental conservation. In this way, the project is supposed to run beyond waste disposal; it is to become a participatory art and learning initiative for the community as a whole.

Socio-Economic Impact

NMMC officials confirmed that the basic feedstock of the lab will be derived directly from the city’s waste ecosystem. Dry waste collected by sanitation workers and informal waste-pickers will be purchased and collected by the lab, securing the supply of recyclables while providing income support to low-income workers. This simulation is a win-win for both the city and its people. This budding initiative is built upon Navi Mumbai’s long-running record of innovation in the niche of recycling. Hitherto, the city has successfully turned organic garbage into compost, converted plastic waste into industrial fuel, and also processed coconut husks into coir ropes and cocopeat. Another instance was the conversion of construction debris to make paving blocks. Navi Mumbai also runs India’s first municipal old-clothes recycling project. Officials mentioned that the Waste-to-Art Lab is expected to “further enhance Navi Mumbai’s reputation as a leader in sustainability and creative waste management”.

Project Details and Highlights

Aspects of the Project	Noteworthy Details
Project	India’s first Waste-to-Art Lab (Upcycling Art Training Centre)
Location	Beneath Sector 21 flyover, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai
Waste Handled	Approximately 200 tonnes of dry waste per month
Core Activity	Upcycling discarded materials into artistic sculptures for public display
Infrastructure	NMMC provides facility space; contractors install baling and processing equipment
Community Outreach	Workshops and awareness programs in schools, colleges, and housing societies
Impact & Beneficiaries	Beautified public spaces, citizen engagement, and income support for waste pickers

Key Takeaways

Navi Mumbai, hosting India’s first dedicated Waste-to-Art Lab, is a first-of-its-kind initiative.
Discarded plastics, metals, and other recyclables will be upcycled into sculptures and installations for public spaces, promoting the agenda of Art from Waste.
Waste is purchased directly from local sanitation workers and waste-pickers, promoting Inclusive sourcing.
NMMC will organize workshops, lectures, and community events (in schools, colleges, and housing societies), making this appear less like a task and more like an immersive activity.
This creative lab complements Navi Mumbai’s existing green projects (composting, plastic-to-fuel, coir/cocopeat production, and clothes recycling), building on past success and building a thriving legacy.

An Opinionated Perspective

Navi Mumbai’s Waste-to-Art Lab is a remarkable civic innovation. It’s like a cultural manifesto protracted towards urban sustainability. The most potent aspect of this project is merging aesthetic imagination with ecological accountability. With symbolic sculptures and public installations, NMMC can also transform the overlooked pockets of the city into a site of creativity. This reflects strong policy actions paired with creative initiatives to set in motion the wheel of change, as it marks a model for future sustainable pursuits.

It also creates opportunities, not only for the low-waged workers, but for students in the artistic field, as they gain exposure and hands-on experience in the conversion of waste materials into masterpieces, where each discarded material will be infused with new narratives of beauty and responsibility to make the world a better habitable abode. It becomes art in motion. It also expands the idea of what constitutes public art in India, moving it beyond elite galleries into the arteries of civic life.

Takeaways

However, the lab’s success will purely depend on consistent public participation and curatorial vision. Without active community engagement, such projects risk becoming symbolic gestures rather than sustainable movements. Yet, Navi Mumbai’s record in civic innovation gives reason for optimism. If executed with commitment, the Waste-to-Art Lab could redefine how Indian cities imagine waste—not as the end of a cycle, but the beginning of creativity.

Shakti: The Art of Resilience Unites Art, Courage, and Compassion

Kriti Sen

October 16, 2025

Kian Foundation’s forthcoming exhibition Shakti: The Art of Resilience is to be organized in New Delhi from 24–29 October 2025. This showcase, curated by the virtuoso art critic Johny ML (an Indian art curator and writer), highlights the resilience and strength of women in India’s defence community. Shakti bridges painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed-media works on the theme of fortitude and remembrance. The event is set to take place at the Living Tradition Centre (Bikaner House) in New Delhi, where visitors can reflect on the “unseen resilience” of army wives, daughters, and mothers through the medium of art.

Featured Artists

The exhibition displays works by leading contemporary artists, combining variegated styles and media to tell a shared story of resilience. Notable participants include Subodh Kerkar, a renowned Indian painter, sculptor, and installation artist (founder of the Museum of Goa). Sudharak Olwe, an Award-winning social-documentary photographer (Padma Shri awardee) known for intimate portraits of marginalized communities. The lineup also includes Vijender Sharma, Nilesh Vede, Niranjan Jonnalagadda, Prakash Bal Joshi, Milind Mulick, (the late) Pratap Mulick, Shampa Sircar Das, Vipta Kapadia, Meera George, Vivek Nimbolkar, Ajit Deswandikar, Nilisha Phad, Ketaki Pimpalkhare, Dinkar Jadhav, Shrikant Kadam, Satyajeet Varekar, Rashmi Khurana, and Sukesan Kanka.

Each artist lays a distinct visual language (painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media) that evokes empathy and a colloquy of thoughts pinned by imagination. In this way, Shakti transforms art “not as spectacle but as a catalyst for change,” using creative expression to honour bravery and vulnerability, crossing straight to the amygdala.

The Artworks

Artist	Featured Work / Medium
Subodh Kerkar	Fatima – Coconut husk and acrylic on plywood (4ft × 6ft)
Sudharak Olwe	Photographic series capturing resilience and dignity among the marginalised
Vijender Sharma	Figurative paintings exploring feminine endurance
Nilesh Vede	Mixed media installations on social transitions
Niranjan Jonnalagadda	Sculptural narratives of inner strength
Prakash Bal Joshi	Abstract watercolour compositions evoking emotion and movement
Milind Mulick	Landscape-inspired watercolours blending realism and introspection
Shampa Sircar Das	Feminine forms reflecting devotion, power, and identity
Vipta Kapadia	Experimental works in texture and geometry symbolising balance
Meera George	Contemporary paintings portraying emotion and resilience

Partnership and Social Impact

A key mentionworthy highlight of Shakti is the partnership forged with the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA). AWWA is an official non-profit organisation of the Indian Army, and is dedicated to the welfare of on-duty soldiers’ families. It provides ex gratia grants to families of deceased soldiers and scholarships to children of widows. Through a watershed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), KIAN Foundation will direct the net proceeds (after costs and artist compensation) for the benefit of War widows and families of martyrs, helping them attenuate the hardships faced by India’s bereaved families. (As of end-2024, there are about 740,766 registered widows of ex-servicemen in India. Also, women married to disabled or amputee veterans, whose sacrifices often go unacknowledged, are taken into the ambit; dependents from defence families seeking education and professional advancement will also be acknowledged.

Therefore, the aim is to channel Shakti art sales into concrete support. By collaborating with AWWA, which runs vocational training, psycho-social support groups, and educational schemes for widows, the exhibition turns public wonderment into pragmatic assistance. This is a remarkable specimen of art-driven philanthropy that seeks to empower marginal communities. Hitherto, initiatives (like an exhibition on Radha) have similarly donated revenue to war widows. KIAN Foundation’s co-directors, Siddharth and Aarti Naik, emphasize that Shakti “builds long-term support” by connecting policy, philanthropy, and creativity around this cause.

Visiting Information

Shakti runs 24–29 October 2025 (11 AM–7 PM) at Bikaner House, New Delhi. Admission details (RSVP, tickets) will be available via the KIAN Foundation closer to the dates. The public is encouraged to attend, to view the powerful artworks, and to support women of the armed forces community.

Exhibition Highlights

Showcases over 20 leading Indian contemporary artists.
Focuses on women connected to India’s Defence Services, their courage, faith, and unseen resilience.
Curated by Johny ML, a respected art historian and critic.
Presented by Aarti and Siddhartha Naik of the Kian Foundation.
Marks a historic MOU with the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA).
Proceeds to support war widows, defence families, and women with disabled veterans.
The exhibition merges artistic expression with social impact, symbolising Shakti — divine feminine power and strength.

Shakti is the kind of exhibition that reiterates that art is much more potent than just being a mirror of society. Art can be a meaningful catalyst that can create a healing drive, reform fractured notions, and nudge us towards empathy. By putting the lived experiences of women tied to the defense ecosystem as the foci of this exhibition, a highly sensitized narrative is constructed, which is paired with able curation with a tangible MOU-backed commitment. The noble step taken by the Kian Foundation seeks to transform sympathy into action; it aims to create art with a purpose. It is a remarkable instance that adequately points towards the fact that curation with conscience, and exhibition with intent, can be a driving force of social change.

Meenakshi Nihalani’s Seven Yards of Blue Debut Solo at AMCA

Somya Goel

October 15, 2025

Big news from the art world! A remarkable new artist, Meenakshi Nihalani, has launched her first-ever solo show at Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art (AMCA). Meenakshi earned this major spotlight as the very first recipient of AMCA’s special ‘The Emerging Artist Solo’ (TEAS) award.

Seven Yards of Blue is open to the public until 25 October. There is no way you’d want to miss this project. It is inspired by an extensive artistic investigation into the Champaran Satyagraha, using Mahatma Gandhi’s own letters to show how the farming community was affected during the movement. Here is everything you need to know about it:

Everything You Need to Know

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This is no ordinary art display. Nihalani has created an impressive, immersive setting that uses a powerful mix of textiles and sculpture. Her work directly confronts history, vividly showing the immense difficulties faced by indigo farmers under colonial rule. She takes those crucial historical events and skillfully connects them to contemporary art, creating an important conversation between the past and the present.

Event	Details
Title	Seven Yards of Blue
Artist	Meenakshi Nihalani
Award	First recipient of the TEAS (The Emerging Artist Solo) Award
Venue	Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art (AMCA), Colaba, Mumbai
Dates	October 13 – October 25, 2025
Curator	Anupa Mehta
Supported by	Hampi Art Labs (Artist Residency)
Theme	Inspired by Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha (1917) and the indigo farmers’ struggle under colonial rule.

The Inspiration: Gandhi and the Farmers’ Fight

The whole exhibition focuses on the spirit of the Champaran movement, which Gandhi initiated in 1917. It was India’s first large-scale effort at civil disobedience designed to put an end to the coerced cultivation of indigo.

Meenakshi not only studied the event, but also drew emotional and historical force from Gandhi’s letters written to each other during that difficult time. Her installations tell the moving, human story of the farmers who refused to give up, focusing on lasting ideas like justice, standing up for what’s right, and self-reliance.

Anupa Mehta, the gallery owner and curator, was clearly enthusiastic:

“We are truly excited to show Meenakshi’s powerful work at AMCA as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi during this special month. This exhibition gives us all a chance to think about how relevant justice and self-reliance still are. We plan to keep having many more important conversations through the TEAS award in the years to come, and we hope to keep encouraging new talent to share their views on relevant social and economic issues through contemporary art.”

The Significance of the Material

It’s worth noting how Meenakshi uses her materials. By focusing on textiles, she links the work back to the very fabric of the colonial economy, and Gandhi’s eventual push for Khadi. The blue of indigo, which provided unimaginable wealth to the colonizers and a precarious life for the farmers, emerges as the prevailing, often haunting, color in the installation. The textiles themselves hold the weight of labor, history, and exploitation, which renders deeply personal the farmers’ struggle for every viewer of the art.

Why the TEAS Award Matters

The TEAS award and its exhibition are held every year to help artists whose work bravely addresses social and economic issues, giving them a vital start. Supporting new voices like Meenakshi’s guarantees both the global and Indian art worlds can continue to have important conversations.

The opening night attracted a terrific mix of artists, collectors, critics, and the general public longing to see the powerful mix of art, activism, and history on show.

This is an experience not to be missed! You have until October 25 to see how Meenakshi Nihalani makes history, a modern, moving, and tangible experience!

ART MUMBAI 2025: Cultures Collide at Mumbai’s Racecourse Fair

Kriti Sen

October 15, 2025

Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse will spark with creativity in mid-November as ART Mumbai (Nov 13–16, 2025) returns for its third edition. This four-day event, presented by Birla Opus, is projected not simply as a market but as a global festival entailing culture and dialogue. ART MUMBAI aims to place art at the heart of the city, bringing together a truly cosmopolitan crowd, subjecting them to exceptionally chosen works of contemporary artists. The artworks will be exhibited in the galleries of South Asian and International labels. Following the festive season, Mumbai’s spirit will be rejuvenated with the spirit of art.

Art Mumbai

In just two years, Art Mumbai has established itself as the city’s most vibrant art fair. Last year, 70 galleries from India and abroad were placed, creating a cosmopolitan environment where people who cherish art flocked in. On display were works by legends like Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, which sat alongside the South Asian art. For instance, Galleria Continua, Ben Brown Fine Arts, and New York’s Aicon Gallery participated in 2024, bringing Picasso’s prints and Warhol’s silkscreens into Mumbai’s frame of perceptions. At the same time, the fair fully celebrated its native artists as well, with installations and paintings by leading Indian artists everywhere, from Ravinder Reddy’s gigantic Devi sculpture to the Singh Twins’ miniature-inspired canvases; it was a blast.

The artistic celebrations are also complemented by a full-fledged cultural programme to show the richness of the creative culture of India. Apart from the main exhibition halls, now hosting 82 exhibitors from around the world, the fair also includes artist talks, panel discussions, and performances, making the whole experience very immersive and engaging. This year’s topics for discussion include themes like “Collecting Culture: How, Why and When to Invest in Art”; global design dialogue, etc.. By integrating artistic endeavors with other performing arts and gourmet bites, ART MUMBAI aims to open a space where people shall not only indulge in intellectual pursuits but also engage with a community of tastemakers and trailblazers. It is set to be an experience, a platform to hold meaningful conversations, networking, exchange, and celebration.

Featured Galleries & Sections

Numerous prestigious Indian galleries like Vadehra Art Gallery (Delhi), DAG (New Delhi/Mumbai), Nature Morte (Delhi/Mumbai), and others will present four generations of South Asian art, from early modern masters to the latest stars, projecting a historical backing with each piece. Various leading international dealers, for example, Italy’s Galleria Continua and London’s Ben Brown Fine Arts will bring signature works by icons and will accompany the Indian artists. Gallery spaces dedicated to India will spotlight Indian modern masters (MF Husain, Tyeb Mehta) and contemporary celebrities (the Singh Twins), ensuring a pan-Indian narrative under one roof.

Highlight	Description
Sculpture Walk	A landscaped outdoor trail featuring over 20 sculptures and installations across the racecourse lawns — blending urban vitality with natural calm.
International Masters	Global galleries like Galleria Continua and Ben Brown Fine Arts present works by legends such as Picasso and Andy Warhol alongside South Asian artists.
Indian Galleries	South Asian heavyweights including Vadehra Art Gallery, DAG, Nature Morte, and Emami Art showcase four generations of Indian modern and contemporary art.
Speaker Series	Panel discussions, artist talks, and cultural dialogues covering themes like “Collecting Culture,” design trends, and cross-border art exchange.

The fair also partners with foundations and institutions. In 2024, three cultural foundations participated; while details for 2025 are still emerging, notable trusts or museums are expected to host special displays. For example, last year saw installations inspired by Mumbai’s heritage alongside global pop art.

The fair’s global outreach is vividly evident. A gallery press release mentions that Gallery Isabelle (Mumbai) will feature works by artists Richi Bhatia, Vikram Divecha, and Abdelkader Benchamma at Art Mumbai 2025, displaying a balanced blend of Indian and international creative voices. In fact, the fair itself demonstrates “the very best Modern and Contemporary art from South Asia and beyond” in a carefully curated exhibition. Local design sponsor Birla Opus is working to adorn the surroundings with colourful backdrops and displays, and the District’s co-founders rally the digital-age collector by handling ticketing. The fair is duly perceived on a dual scale, both as a commercial hotspot to incentivize the creative works and also as a cultural summit that serves as a melting pot for people from different backgrounds, places, and identities.

Why Art Mumbai Stands Out

Art Mumbai’s organizers have coined it a “cultural phenomenon,” and it’s literally translatable, as it successfully emerged as a vibrant art party in India’s financial capital. The racecourse setting combines greenery with urban grit, allowing collectors to roam under the open sky among art. The fair’s mix of Old Masters and young newcomers means a bookish professor and a Mumbai teenager might equally find something captivating. In its upcoming edition, ART MUMBAI 2025 promises a global spectrum; think Picasso next to a rising Mumbai painter, and Tibetan prints by Tsherin Sherpa adjacent to Indian miniatures. This syncretic admixture encompasses an eloquent space where art enthusiasts will gather around to cherish, celebrate, and engage in this exchange. The prime emphasis, though, is on dialogue – between eras, between countries, and between the art world and the local public.

Key Highlights

When & Where: ART MUMBAI 2025 — 13–16 Nov at Mahalaxmi Racecourse, Mumbai; tickets via District Updates.
What it is: More than an art fair — a festival-like platform for global dialogue, discovery, and shared cultural experience.
Program mix: International masters (Picasso, Warhol) alongside South Asian stalwarts (e.g., Ravinder Reddy) and dedicated zones for emerging artists.
Experiential highlights: Sculpture Walk and large outdoor installations, plus a robust speaker series of talks, panels, and performances.
Why it matters: Unique racecourse setting and festival vibe make it both accessible to the public and essential for collectors — equal parts culture and commerce.

Well, ART MUMBAI does sell masterpieces and high-design novelties, but what it also offers is an immersive experience, a picture of cross-cultural exchange, a blend of family-friendly fun with world-class art, and last but not least, a place of mental refuge and rejuvenation. The fair captures and reflects Mumbai’s energy as a global metropolis. From Ravinder Reddy’s colossal heads to Picasso’s elegant sketches, from panel discussions on investment to live Kathak dance on the lawns, the fair illustrates how art can unify different communities. Ultimately, what makes Art Mumbai stand out is its inclusive spirit. It is as much about celebration as about commerce, and as one organizer put it, “a celebration of the city and its art.”

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