In photos: Made by Ai Weiwei, Veer Munshi, NS Harsha... 10 must-see artworks at India Art Fair 2025
If you are planning to visit the India Art Fair 2025 and are not sure what to see first, start with these 10 pieces. Also start here if you're unable to go for any reason but would like to keep abreast of what's interesting at the 16th edition of the Delhi art fair.
If you are planning to visit India Art Fair 2025 at NSIC Exhibition Grounds in Delhi this weekend, look out for the way this edition balances the industrious with the fun, the retrospective with the modern, the masters with the up-and-coming. Of course, the credit for this must go to the exhibitors and gallerist themselves. Watch out also for the unabashed embrace of colour, Indian design and craft heritage and stories about nature. This year, as always, the artwork display begins as soon as you enter the ticketed area. The white-on-white flags along the entryway can be underwhelming, but the art fair facade (above) by Ayesha Singh - and supported by Shalini Passi's MASH - is something to see. It is an ode to women architects and to Delhi's building heritage- architectural lines, horse-shoe arches, stone pillars, modern structures. Among the women honored in Singh's work, spread over 460 ft across four tents, are Mughal empress Bega Begum who commissioned Humayun’s Tomb (1572), Urmila Eulie Chowdhury who was part of Le Corbusier’s team during his development of Chandigarh, and Revathi Kamath, who championed mud architecture and building in harmony with nature. (Image courtesy Ayesha Singh)
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Outdoor projects have become something of a crowd-pleaser at the India Art Fair. In the 16th edition, the fair showcases at least two that are attention-grabbing. Pictured here is one of these: a second-hand cement truck manipulated by artist Asim Waqif till its innards are exposed pipe and metal, and the sound it makes is no longer the whiny whirring of cement trucks at construction sites everywhere but a tingly bell you can ring if you choose to go up the steps. Watch out for the sharp and rusty bits, though this monster machine has been declawed in many other ways. The work is called Make-Shift, and was supported by a steel maker in Ahmedabad.
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The materiality of the medium adds something to the story in the better works of contemporary art. Consider this wall-mounted piece by Madhukar Mucharla: Titled Baba Saheb, it is made with stitched leather and evokes so much history - of caste and of the things BR Ambedkar fought for. Though Ambedkar has never been out of the news for any prolonged period in India, conversations around the Indian Constitution which completed 75 years this year have sparked even greater interest in his ideas and ideals lately. Here's what the young artist wrote on his Instagram alongside a photo of this work: "#babasaheb vision transcended mere legislation, he pioneered a movement that emphasized education, equality, and dignity for all." Don't miss the leather-flowers shradhanjali at the bottom; it's a potential rabbit hole by itself, as it takes the mind to so many current events and debates around animal vs plant products, who can skin animals, India's leather exports, lynchings over meat... (GallerySKE)
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Mumbai's Method just opened its Delhi gallery at Defence Colony this month, with a show curated by Anicca Mann. Called Fresh Produce, it presents works by 30 young artists who all responded to a call for applications before being selected. At the India Art Fair, they've brought works by artists like Mohd Iniyaz, Sage, Kunel Gaur, Gargi Chandola. Consider the two pieces in the foreground: the B-boying Indian figure is by street artist Sage. The sculpture behind it is by Jharkhand-born Iniyaz: it's made with plumbing pipes, resin (figurines) and steel (buckets and pots), and speaks to Iniyaz's personal experience of living in a poor neighbourhood after his family moved to Delhi. Water scarcity in his growing-up years was compounded by discrimination in the long lines to get the limited municipal supply.
Srinagar-born Veer Munshi's 'Anantnag (Infinite Springs)', 2025, is hand-painted on MDF wood. Zoom in to see the papier mache and nakkashi influences as well as the Persian-style angels that link to Mughal miniatures.
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Detail from Veer Munshi's 2025 work 'Anantnag (Infinite Springs)'.
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Works by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei are back at the India Art Fair in its 16th edition. In this 2023 piece, titled simply Neolithic Vase Merged with Toy Bricks, he's placed a GBP 5,000-plus historical vase on a pedestal of plastic Lego-like blocks. Is it a comment on how we package and repackage our histories and toy with tradition, hoping that the cheap scaffolding can serve as a worthy vestibule for world histories? Or perhaps the reverse, that this meaning-finding in historical objects that were once articles of daily use is pulling the wool over ordinary people's eyes, giving them an inflated sense of the nation's importance in world history? Ai has, in the past, painted over ancient vases that go for thousands of dollars apiece and printed the Coca-Cola logo on one of them to make his art. So, see, and read your meanings into the work. Or just marvel at the congruity of a piece that should have seemed incongruous, even on paper.
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Speaking of materiality, there are a couple of unmissable exhibits built around fabric, embroidery - sometimes challenging our perceptions around what they should look and feel like, and at other times, leaning into their sheerness or stitch to build up the layers. Consider these handcut brass and bronze pieces by Richa Arya.
Or this piece titled 'Towards Light IV' by the Chanakya School of Craft. This 5.3 x 6.4 feet work is made with cotton, jute, linen and raw silk thread. Incidentally, Karishma Swali and the Chanakya Foundation also launched the Swali Craft Prize at IAF 2025. The prize comes with a Rs 11 lakh grant and a residency at the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai.
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Indian Ceramics Triennale co-founder Reyaz Badaruddin's 'Private and Public Spaces' grew out of his house-hunting experience in the National Capital Region. Look closer at the tiles, for details like painted clouds and laundry drying on a clothesline.
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There are plenty of exhibits that look back at India's greatest modern artists, photographers and architects, as well as contemporary greats. There are works by A. Ramachandran, Balkrishna Doshi, Ahmed Ali who photographed years of Independent India's industrial push in great depth (PhotoINK gallery has been bringing his work to the fair for a couple of years now, alongside Roger Ballen's whimsical photos), Sudarshan Shetty, B Manjunath, Gigi Scaria, T Venkanna... This present list is far from being comprehensive. Perhaps no list can be. To leave you with one last recommendation, then: Don't miss NS Harsha's 'Sprouting Philosopher' (2025, bronze, 57.5 x 52 inches). It's funny, it's mischievous, it grabs the attention and if you are so inclined, it can be thought-provoking. Here's an excerpt from the plaque: "I am deeply interested in the emergence of 'new proposals' for ways of life. While wondering how to give this thought a form came 'sprouting philosopher'... Playful/mischief/non reasonable moments of monkeys inspire me. In continuation of my lifelong commitment to 'monkey pointing up' gesture, I look for new areas and situations where they can appear again and again in new avatars..."
Chanpreet Khurana Features and weekend editor, Moneycontrol
![Metalworks, leather, lace, embroidery, paper, glass, brass... the materiality of the medium speaks volumes in some of the better works of art. Consider this wall-mounted piece by Madhukar Mucharla: Titled Baba Saheb, it is made with stitched leather and evokes so much history - of trade, of caste, of brutality and of the things BR Ambedkar fought for. Though Ambedkar has never been out of the news for any prolonged period in India, conversations around the Indian Constitution which completed 75 years this year have sparked even greater interest in his ideas and ideals lately. Here's what the young artist wrote on his Instagram alongside a photo of this work: "#babasaheb vision transcended mere legislation, he pioneered a movement that emphasized education, equality, and dignity for all." Don't miss the flower shradhanjali to the bottom left.](https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2025/02/20250208044756_IMG_4796.png "Metalworks, leather, lace, embroidery, paper, glass, brass... the materiality of the medium speaks volumes in some of the better works of art. Consider this wall-mounted piece by Madhukar Mucharla: Titled Baba Saheb, it is made with stitched leather and evokes so much history - of trade, of caste, of brutality and of the things BR Ambedkar fought for. Though Ambedkar has never been out of the news for any prolonged period in India, conversations around the Indian Constitution which completed 75 years this year have sparked even greater interest in his ideas and ideals lately. Here's what the young artist wrote on his Instagram alongside a photo of this work: "#babasaheb vision transcended mere legislation, he pioneered a movement that emphasized education, equality, and dignity for all." Don't miss the flower shradhanjali to the bottom left.")
![There are plenty of exhibits that look back at India's greatest modern artists, photographers and architects, too. There are works by A. Ramachandran, Balkrishna Doshi, Ahmed Ali who photographed years of Independent India's industrial push in great detail and breadth (PhotoINK gallery has been bringing his work to the fair for a couple of years now, alongside Roger Ballen's whimsical photos). So, this present list is far from being comprehensive. Perhaps no list can be. To leave you with one last recommendation with all humility, then: Don't miss NS Harsha's 'Sprouting Philosopher' (2025, bronze, 57.5 x 52 inches). It's funny, it's mischievous, it grabs the attention and if you are so inclined, it can be thought-provoking. Here's an excerpt from the plaque: "I am deeply interested in the emergence of 'new proposals' for ways of life. While wondering how to give this thought a form came 'sprouting philosopher'... Playful/mischief/non reasonable moments of monkeys inspire me. In continuation of my lifelong commitment to 'monkey pointing up' gesture, I look for new areas and situations where they can appear again and again in new avatars..."](https://images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2025/02/20250208072118_IMG_4690.png "There are plenty of exhibits that look back at India's greatest modern artists, photographers and architects, too. There are works by A. Ramachandran, Balkrishna Doshi, Ahmed Ali who photographed years of Independent India's industrial push in great detail and breadth (PhotoINK gallery has been bringing his work to the fair for a couple of years now, alongside Roger Ballen's whimsical photos). So, this present list is far from being comprehensive. Perhaps no list can be. To leave you with one last recommendation with all humility, then: Don't miss NS Harsha's 'Sprouting Philosopher' (2025, bronze, 57.5 x 52 inches). It's funny, it's mischievous, it grabs the attention and if you are so inclined, it can be thought-provoking. Here's an excerpt from the plaque: "I am deeply interested in the emergence of 'new proposals' for ways of life. While wondering how to give this thought a form came 'sprouting philosopher'... Playful/mischief/non reasonable moments of monkeys inspire me. In continuation of my lifelong commitment to 'monkey pointing up' gesture, I look for new areas and situations where they can appear again and again in new avatars..."")
