Why Indian Galleries Are at Home in London

For its sixth presentation at Frieze London, New Delhi-based gallery Nature Morte presents ‘-scapes’, a group show of eight Indian and Indian diasporic artists, including Subodh Gupta, Reena Saini Kallat, Bharti Kher and Imran Qureshi. ‘A “scape” is a world unto itself and invites speculation about the extent to which one occupies, envisions and can build “scapes” of one’s own,’ says Nature Morte’s director, Aparajita Jain. Each artist will present ‘a “scape” that shares in seeing whole and part relationships. The artists have not only situated themselves within a “scape” of their own configuration but also ask us to consider our own.’ This includes works that contemplate cartography, but also conceptual ideas of multitude and multiplicity, such as new oil paintings by Raghav Babbar that observe people at the Maha Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, held every 144 years in India, with the most recent taking place in 2025. Converging at this huge Hindu celebration, each figure brings their own world.

Nature Morte is part of a prominent presence of diverse Indian galleries at Frieze London and Frieze Masters this year, where it joins Art Exposure, DAG, Experimenter, Gallery Maskara, Jhaveri Contemporary, Project 88, Shrine Empire and Vadehra Art Gallery. Jain maintains that London’s ‘vast network of collectors, curators, institutions and academics’ makes it an attractive location for Indian galleries to position their artists internationally. Furthermore, she has found a receptiveness in the UK to ‘India’s rich cultural history and rituals’, imparted to a local audience through more intricately woven and complex historical narratives.

For some Indian galleries, Frieze London provides a fertile testing ground upon which to challenge historical ideas and showcase the new. An array of recent exhibitions by contemporary Indian artists at major London institutions ranges from Arpita Singh’s solo exhibition at the Serpentine (her first at a UK institution) and a posthumous survey of Hamad Butt at the Whitechapel Gallery, to solo projects with Permindar Kaur and Prem Sahib at Pitzhanger Manor this year. Sagarika Sundaram, who has a show planned at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds in 2026, will make her UK solo debut at Alison Jacques gallery during Frieze, while ‘A Story of South Asian Art’, exploring Indian modernism, opens at the Royal Academy of Arts in London on 31 October. The show centres on the figure of the late Mrinalini Mukherjee, who will also be the subject of a major retrospective at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2026. These exhibitions have brought a new wave of attention to the breadth of Indian art practices throughout the last century.

Sushma Jansari is the curator of the British Museum’s ‘Ancient India: Living Traditions’ (until 19 October). Through more than 180 objects, the exhibition traces a link from ancient devotional practices to contemporary faith communities, facilitated by work with Indian diasporic groups in the UK. According to Jansari, London is a unique meeting point for Indian culture, heritage and academia within Europe: ‘The huge diaspora community and sheer range of India-focused ancient and contemporary collections, artists, students, gallerists, curators, authors and cultural innovators all contribute to shaping a cultural scene that is ever-changing and draws an international crowd.’ She goes on to add that the long and intertwined history of artistic exchange between the UK and India also makes the cultural scene different to elsewhere: ‘Often it’s the juxtaposition of Indian and British South Asian art in eclectic spaces that sparks the imagination.’

Shanay Jhaveri, the Barbican’s head of visual arts, embodies the capital’s cross-cultural internationalism. He was the curator of last year’s groundbreaking ‘The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975–1998’, which uncovered a period of history rarely explored in the West through the work of 30 Indian artists. Jhaveri was born and raised in Mumbai, studied at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the Royal College of Art, London, and joined the Barbican from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022. He notes the many international curators working in London ‘who have grown up elsewhere and built a practice on transnational ways’ and who work with what he calls a ‘bifocal sensibility’. This is contributing to a new generation reconsidering how Indian and South Asian arts are seen in the UK, filling in gaps in history and covering radical new ground. ‘At this moment, there is quite a plethora of practices on view,’ he says. ‘Institutions are rethinking national history, received global art history and how those intersect.’ These exhibitions also introduce other prisms through which to understand this past, not only defined by the embattled lens of colonialism and partition. Venues like the Barbican have previously followed specific trajectories of South Asian art, ‘We are seeing a shift,’ Jhaveri says, ‘but it has to be consistent – a refrain we can rely on – and not represented only through acquisitions, but also in the way work is displayed, exhibited and creates space for audiences. I hope that our approach will become seeded more broadly, so that everyone sees the value in it.’

An example of this shift in how art from the region is represented and seen can be found in Jhaveri Contemporary’s stand at Frieze London this year. The presentation is conceived as a celebration of a contemporary ‘aesthetic hybridity [that] challenges historical ideas around form, design and ornament’, explains the gallery’s co-owner Amrita Jhaveri. This will unfold at the fair through a new installation by Lubna Chowdhary, created for the stand, of hand-glazed ceramics stacked on shelves within a sapele wood frame, in ‘a hybrid celebration of design, from modernism to Islamic geometric patterning’. This will be shown alongside abstract, illusory paintings by Rana Begum and Kaur’s steel, copper and fabric sculpture Untitled (Bed) (2020).

Acknowledging the dyadic exchange between places, nations and diasporas, Jhaveri, who is based in London, says: ‘For us, it is always important to exhibit artists based in the UK in conversation with those based in South Asia and to show new works in dialogue with historical ones.’ At Frieze Masters, the gallery will introduce underappreciated Bangladeshi sculptor Novera Ahmed (1939–2015), as part of the Spotlight section, presenting ‘a menagerie of serpents, owls and other fantastical and mythical beasts’ crafted in bronze.

Vadehra Art Gallery’s Roshini Vadehra agrees that there is an ‘increasing appetite’ for contemporary art from the Global South in London. ‘Institutions and collectors are closely engaging with art that has diverse narratives,’ she says. ‘As a gallery focusing on South Asian art, we are enjoying this openness and willingness to connect with the audience in the UK. Collaborations with institutions, participation in art fairs and an increased presence of South Asian artists in public exhibitions make London not just a market for sales, but a meaningful place for galleries and artists from our region.’

The increased visibility of Indian art in London transcends a regional market trend or cultural moment; it allows a redefinition of India’s vast and varied art with new global perspectives, rooted in a profound knowledge of the local context. Vadehra’s stand at Frieze London focuses exclusively on South Asian women artists from four different generations, while at Frieze Masters, 61-year-old Anju Dodiya was selected as one of six artists for the Studio section curated by Sheena Wagstaff. These concurrent presentations embrace and amplify the voices of South Asian women as powerful contributors to discourse on gender politics, examine endemic violence against women and social justice, while tracing deep historical roots that have previously been overlooked. Works on show include oil and watercolours, sculptures, ceramics and mixed media. ‘There’s a growing interest in and respect for Indian galleries in the UK,’ says Vadehra. ‘We are no longer seen as regional representative of “Indian art” but as serious contributors exhibiting artists whose practices are relevant and speak beyond geographical or cultural boundaries.’

South Asian galleries at Frieze Masters:

Art Exposure, Kolkata (Stand S12)

Shrine Empire, New Delhi (Stand S12)

Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (Stand S11).

Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (Stand G8).

South Asian galleries at Frieze London:

Experimenter, Kolkata and Mumbai (Stand B5).

Project 88, Mumbai (Stand B28).

Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (Stand B24).

Gallery Maskara, Mumbai (Stand AA6).

Nature Morte, Mumbai (Stand A11).

Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (Stand A20).

Frieze Week Shows:

Sagarika Sundaram: ‘Release’, Alison Jacques, London, until 15 November 2025.

‘A Story of South Asian Art’, Royal Academy of Arts, London, until 24 February 2026.

Zaam Arif: ‘Deewaar’, presented by Vadehra Art Gallery, Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London, until 25 October 2025.

Further Information

Frieze London and Frieze Masters, The Regent’s Park, 15 – 19 October 2025. 

Tickets are on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.

BUY TICKETS

For all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to the newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram and Frieze Official on Facebook.

^{Main Image: Vikrant Bhise, Revolution unborn: Namdeo Dhasal (Dalit Panther), 2025. Courtesy: the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata and Mumbai}