Indian art is all set to make a splash at Art Dubai 2025
With bold voices, big names, and a burst of creative firepower across generations, India turns up the heat at Art Dubai.
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India has long been on the global art map, its artists shaping international discourse through rich, layered practices rooted in both tradition and innovation. At Art Dubai 2025, this creative force is once again set to be on full display, with 11 Indian galleries showcasing the work of around 30 artists across the Contemporary, Modern, and Bawwaba sections of the art fair. From modern masters like Maqbool Fida Husain to new-generation voices like Divya Singh, the Indian presence cuts across generations and genres, reaffirming the country’s role as both a cultural powerhouse and a dynamic player in the global art world.
Contemporary highlights
Art Dubai Contemporary brings together global galleries from established and emerging art scenes and features key Indian galleries such as Project 88 and Experimenter. Shrine Empire will present Divya Singh, one of the artists featured, whose practice is grounded in painting, with a lyrical engagement with themes of memory, time, and mortality. It often incorporates photography, writing, cinema, and artist books.
Galleria Continua will present Nikhil Chopra, whose multidisciplinary work blends performance, drawing, photography, and installation. Improvisation and self-portraiture are central to Chopra’s art, as is the exploration of identity and transformation through daily acts like dressing, eating, and drawing. Continua will also present Indian sculpture heavyweight Anish Kapoor, whose conceptual art and installations of spare geometrics are all about the form.
Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road, a frontrunner in the Indian gallery landscape since 2007, will showcase Mithu Sen. Known for her conceptual and interactive formats, Sen’s work explores and questions societal hierarchies, identities, and taboo topics through drawing, performance, poetry, sound, and installation.
Bawwaba: A gateway to new voices
Curated by Mirjam Varadinis, the Bawwaba section presents 10 solo exhibitions from across five continents. Here, Indian artist Abishek Ganesh J, known as Kaimurai, is represented by Blueprint12. His meditative indigo-on-khaki textile works explore energy, organic forms, and the traditions of South Indian art and music, offering viewers a moment of deceleration and calm.
Art Dubai Modern: Revisiting masters
Curated by Magalí Arriola and Nada Shabout, Art Dubai Modern is dedicated to pivotal 20th-century artists. DAG will present Maqbool Fida Husain, one of modern Indian art’s most influential names. From painting cinema hoardings to redefining Indian modernism as a founding member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Husain’s vast oeuvre reflects his secular, multifaceted vision of India’s cultural identity.
Alongside the main fair, Indian artist Shilpa Gupta presents Still They Know Not What I Dream at The Yard, Alserkal Avenue. The light installation invites reflection on media, surveillance, and self-agency, using disorienting text and poetic minimalism to challenge perceptions of freedom and control.
Art Dubai 2025 reaffirms what the art world has long known—India is not just participating in the global conversation; it is shaping it. From pioneering modernists to boundary-pushing contemporaries, the Indian presence at the fair is both rooted in legacy and brimming with fresh, future-facing narratives. With a diverse range of voices and practices on display, India’s artists and galleries continue to expand the language of art, proving that the country's creative pulse is not only vibrant, but vital to the global cultural fabric.
Lead Image: Animal Studies IV for the Ark I, 2024 by Lavanya Mani, courtesy of Chemould Prescott Road
Inside Images: Art Dubai Catalogue
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