This week, Delhi gears up for the annual India Art Fair. In the past decade, the extended National Capital Region has seen exponential growth of its art ecosystem: New galleries, focusing on young and emerging talent, museums, and not-for-profit institutional initiatives have sprung up. This year, major themes include India’s sociopolitical conditions, climate-induced ecological imbalance, and deeply personal chronicles originating from lived experiences. Here are seven intriguing programs in the city.

Seema Kohli
‘Khula Aasman’
Partition Museum
Until February 15, 2025
Seema Kohli Studio
Until February 18, 2025

Spread across the Partition Museum and the artist’s studio, Seema Kohli’s ongoing project references family archives, material inheritance, and oral accounts to recreate the memory of her ancestral home in Pind Dadan Khan. The town, presently a part of Jhelum District in Pakistan, lies beyond her reach. Kohli articulates the link to a home that one may never return to, making this presentation deeply personal, while also revealing the underlying ephemerality of all belonging. The title ‘Khula Aasman’ (‘Open Skies’) refers to the distant skyline that watches over us as we work and that shapes our hopes.

Sagarika Sundaram
‘Polyphony’
Nature Morte
Until February 23, 2025

For her Indian debut, New York-based, Kolkata-born textile artist Sagarika Sundaram transforms gallery spaces with immersive fiber installations that blur the boundaries between sound and form. Her creative process harnesses raw instinct and spontaneous energy, resulting in bold compositions that evolve organically. Specializing in handcrafted felt works, she develops complex, multilayered pieces that reveal hidden depths when carefully dissected. Through this meticulous technique, she creates ambitious sculptural works that challenge traditional categories, contributing fresh perspectives to both textile art and contemporary sculpture.

Amit Ambalal
‘In the garden of Sumeru’
Gallery Espace
Until March 1, 2025

Through his unique artistic vision, Amit Ambalal transforms everyday scenes into enchanting narratives that blur the boundary between fantasy and reality. This exhibition showcases vibrant compositions where playfulness meets contemplation, each piece infused with subtle wit and keen social insight. Drawing inspiration from the wildlife that frequents his garden, particularly the local monkey troops he observes daily, Ambalal creates multilayered works rich in both color and meaning. While his paintings might appear lighthearted at first glance, they cleverly weave together moments of joy with thoughtful observations about society and human behavior.

Gauri Gill
‘The Village on the Highway’
Vadehra Art Gallery
Until March 4, 2025

One of India’s leading photographers, Gauri Gill, brings her powerful documentary work to Vadehra Art Gallery. Her acclaimed series documenting the farmers’ protests arrives at the gallery for its first comprehensive showing in her home country. The photographs capture a pivotal moment in India’s agricultural history, when farmers united to challenge new agricultural legislation. They reveal how protesters transformed highways into living spaces, creating makeshift shelters that spoke to both necessity and innovation. Gill, whose work earned her the 2023 Prix Pictet, focused her lens on these temporary settlements, documenting a remarkable moment of collective resistance and resourcefulness.

Sarker Protick
‘Shadows in the sky’
Shrine Empire
Until March 11, 2025

In the familiar streets of Dhaka, Sarker Protick turns his lens to the everyday. His photographic territory is the neighborhood that watched him grow up, where each street corner tells a story in flux. At the heart of his work lies his mother’s home, a space where time flows at its own pace, marked by her gentle strength and quiet perseverance. His gaze also follows the crows, those silent observers of daily life who drift between household perches and the open skies. Through his photographs, he crafts an intimate portrait of his mother, capturing fragments of her present life intertwined with echoes of her past. It is a body of work that shifts between moments of vibrant life and contemplative stillness.

Group show
‘Flowing Heritage: The Indian Water Narrative’
Arthshila Delhi
Until April 27, 2025

Discover a groundbreaking exhibition that reimagines India’s timeless relationship with water through the lens of contemporary craft and artistry. This immersive showcase brings together traditional craftsmanship and modern technology, creating a sensory journey where visitors experience the rhythms and flows of this life-giving element. Through interactive displays and art installations, the exhibition reveals water’s dual nature as a vital resource and creative inspiration. Ancient clay vessels take center stage, highlighting humanity’s spiritual and practical connection to water across generations. The exhibition culminates in a series of visual narratives that demonstrate how water has shaped Indian culture, from ancient wisdom to modern innovation, weaving together centuries of human ingenuity and artistic expression.

Gulammohammed Sheikh
‘Of Worlds Within Worlds’
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

Until June 30, 2025

Gulammohammed Sheikh is revered as a prolific painter, a respected pedagogue, and an avid poet. Through diverse mediums and disciplines, this retrospective aims to bring forward his cultural consciousness, going back to Indian modernism in the 1960s, along with a deep awareness of the evolving cultural landscape of the country. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, books, photographs, and installations disregard the linearity of history and singularity of identities, weaving storytelling with mythmaking, all at once celebrating collective humanity. With works representing 65 years of practice, this retrospective marks the artist’s most comprehensive exhibition ever held in India.