What's happening across India's art scene this September

September brings with it a thoughtful month for India’s art scene. Across galleries in the country, artists are turning to memory, place, identity, and the body to tell stories that are personal while still speaking to larger questions. There is also a strong sense of looking backwards this month, whether through archival material, childhood memories, or artistic practices shaped over decades.

The month brings together very different generations and approaches to art. There is a retrospective of Shanu Lahiri at Project 88, a new body of work by Biraaj Dodiya at Experimenter, and Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo’s Mänk’áčen at the NCPA, alongside exhibitions by Priyanka Aelay, Vasant Dora, and Jenjum Gadi. 

Here is what deserves a place on your cultural calendar this month:

Sing. No Cry

This group exhibition brings together nine artists whose practices embrace instinct, experimentation, and the freedom to move beyond convention. The exhibition is curated by Jasone Miranda-Bilbao and Vaibhav Raj Shah, and it features Amikam Toren, Asha Vaidyanath, Basist Kumar, Holly Hendry, Katie Pratt, Rahul Papaniya, Shivangi Ladha, Vanita Gupta, and Willa Hilditch. It takes its cue from the unruly spirit of David Lynch's Wild at Heart, where freedom is closely tied to instinct, risk and a refusal to follow prescribed paths.

When: Until October 15
Where: Thapar Contemporary, New Delhi

It Will Rain Again When We Meet

In this solo exhibition by Priyanka Aelay, the forest in all its richness and diversity takes vital importance. In her paintings, the lush terrain is visible in vast expanses, revealing the presence of fauna amidst the vegetation: a fox here, a tiger there, a jewel-like bird peeping from within the multihued foliage. Working with fine layers of acrylic pigments on linen canvas, she creates landscapes that bring together the real and imaginary, the tangible and intangible.

When: September 9 to October 6
Where: KYNKYNY, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai

Aaveg: Between the Finite and the Infinite

This solo exhibition by artist and architect Vasant Dora brings together two interconnected series, Habitat Scapes and Samsara, exploring the relationship between architecture, urban spaces, spirituality and the human experience. Drawing from his nearly four-decade architectural practice, the works reflect an interesting convergence of Dora as an architect, artist, thinker, and spiritualist.

When: September 8 to 11
Where: Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Stories That Never End

Project 88 presents a major retrospective of Shanu Lahiri, bringing together paintings from the 1970s through the 2000s with sketches, scrapbooks, writings, photographs, exhibition catalogues, and archival material. Curated by Tapati Guha-Thakurta and Nobina Gupta, the exhibition looks beyond Lahiri as a painter to her work as a muralist, educator, and pioneer of public art in Kolkata. Her vibrant visual language, interest in myths and legends, and commitment to bringing art into public spaces all come together in a show that offers a fuller picture of her artistic legacy.

When: Until September 19
Where: Project 88, Colaba, Mumbai

Mänk’áčen

Chilean artist and researcher Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo turns his attention to the history of photography in Mänk’áčen, presented by the NCPA on the occasion of the Bicentennial of Photography. The exhibition looks at the arrival and evolution of the camera in South America and India, bringing together historical photographs, archival documents, museum collections, scientific reports, and field notes. Rather than treating photography as a neutral form of documentation, Valenzuela-Escobedo examines how the camera has shaped ideas around power, memory, identity and representation.

When: Until September 20
Where: Dilip Piramal Art Gallery, NCPA, Mumbai

Ngok Dollu (My Village)

Multi-disciplinary artist Jenjum Gadi offers a personal look at the memories of his village life in Arunachal Pradesh through Ngok Dollu, translating them into his signature sculptural works in brass. It is an evocative body of work that reflects on the landscapes, architecture, and everyday rhythms that shaped his early life. Working primarily in brass, he transforms personal recollections into sculptural forms that explore the relationship between place and material.

When: September 10 to 25
Where: Gallery Vayu, New Delhi

Grid for a Disappearance

Biraaj Dodiya’s Grid for a Disappearance brings together painted steel sculptures, photographs, and oil paintings on linen in a body of work that considers the body through absence, fragility, and repair. Her large steel structures resemble bed frames or stretchers, while layers of fabric, photographs, wood, and paint create works that feel simultaneously architectural and physical. The exhibition is part of Dodiya’s ongoing interest in painting as an act of mending, with the suggestion of bodies that are present even when they are never directly shown.

When: Until September 19
Where: Experimenter, Kolkata

Lead image: Mediagraphix PR, Mirabilis Inc PR, Brandstand PR 

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