Artistic Renewal and Environmental Consciousness Take Center Stage at India Art Fair
The NSIC Grounds in Okhla, New Delhi have transformed into a vibrant canvas of layered narratives and profound artistic statements during the 17th edition of the India Art Fair, running from February 5 to 8. This annual celebration has expanded significantly, featuring 135 exhibitors including 27 new participants, creating space for diverse artistic inquiries that respond to contemporary global issues.
Recycled Materials and Philosophical Inquiries
At the heart of the outdoor installations stands Paresh Maity's monumental work, Recycle of Life. This large-scale project, crafted from burnt wood and recycled metal pipes, comprises 27 sculptural forms that explore recycling not merely as a process but as a deep philosophical inquiry into renewal and resurgence. Nearby, Kulpreet Singh's Extinction Archive presents a stark contrast by foregrounding violence against land and biodiversity. The Patiala-based artist meticulously documents animal, fungal, and plant species worldwide that face extinction or have already vanished, creating a powerful environmental statement.
Cultural Survival and Textile Narratives
The fair provides a platform for artists from the Global South to share their unique perspectives and lived experiences. Afghan-Australian artist Khadim Ali's solo presentation, Wandering Wisdom, stands out for its interpretation of miniature painting traditions while delving into personal histories of exile and cultural survival. Similarly, Kenyan artist Thandiwe Muriu's A Gathering Welcome uses the East African Kanga fabric as a site of inquiry into culture and gender. Through photonarrative techniques that insert female figures within textiles, Muriu bridges historical references with contemporary aesthetics while questioning social expectations surrounding women.
Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries
This year's edition showcases a remarkable blurring of lines between different artistic disciplines. Jayasri Burman's Impermeable, part of the Focus section by Art Alive, expands a verse from her poetry collection into an immersive installation. The Sabyasachi Art Foundation makes its debut at the fair with a solo presentation of Atish Mukherjee, whose practice articulates a renewed contemporary expression of the Bengal School of Art. Founded in 2014 to support financially fragile artisans, the foundation highlights how traditional art forms continue to evolve in modern contexts.
Design Innovations and Material Explorations
The design section returns with renewed vigor, featuring 14 studios and two galleries from India for the first time ever. Designers are exploring diverse materialities with innovative approaches. Ashiesh Shah's studio employs the ancient Indian metal craft of dhokra through intricate wax casting to create pieces shaped by political moments and questions of belonging. The Chanakya School of Craft focuses on hand-embroidered textile practices of women, while Galerie Maria Wettergren presents a solo show by award-winning Indian designer Dhruv Agarwwal.
New Delhi-based studios like Nitush-Aroosh are reimagining stainless steel as a material capable of softness and movement, while Kohelika Kohli Karkhana explores contrasting materials with a focus on minimalism, sustainability, and repurposing. Their Plateau Coffee Table series exemplifies how ordinary materials can transform into extraordinary artistic expressions.
Performance Art and Technological Integration
Performance art continues to be a highlight, with this year's program reflecting a field that has grown more expansive, collaborative, and socially-embedded. Curated by HH Art Spaces and led by international artists, the performances draw on action, sound, movement, ritual, and participation. The program frames the act of feeding—ideas, bodies, and forms—as a powerful gesture of connection and communication.
Technological integration takes center stage in several innovative projects. Afrah Shafiq's A Giant Sampler, commissioned by BMW and displayed on the fair's facade, approaches digital technology as an extension of craft. Drawing on embroidery motifs from across cultures, the interactive work invites viewers to scan surfaces to unlock layered histories. Similarly, Shreni Sanghvi's Stand Here, Forget imagines Mumbai as a 'remembering body' through audio-reactive digital ecosystems that translate urban textures and mycelial networks.
Women Artists and Ecological Speculations
Women artists take center stage in the Focus section, featuring both emerging and veteran practitioners like Bharti Kher, Jayasri Burman, Thandiwe Muriu, Naina Dalal, and Marina Abramović. Their works demonstrate how subject matter and artistic vocabularies shift across generations while remaining rooted in lived experience, historical consciousness, and contemporary identity politics.
Ecological speculation finds expression in projects like Raki Nikahetiya's FOREST II, which uses reclaimed construction materials and native vegetation to reimagine 'home' as a living, regenerative ecosystem inspired by the Miyawaki method. This installation's speculative power lies in imagining future habitats while ensuring the work continues beyond the fair through relocation and community-led stewardship.
Expanded Programming and Regional Engagement
Fair director Jaya Asokan emphasizes that as the event grows, it becomes equally important to deepen conversations and create multiple points of engagement. The launch of IAF EDI+IONS and the 2025 edition held in Hyderabad have significantly expanded the year-round program, allowing sustained engagement with artistic communities across India. The inaugural OPEN Design Talks, curated by Border & Fall, respond to increasingly blurred boundaries between art, design, craft, architecture, and technology.
The talks program brings together voices from across South Asia and beyond to consider how regional art ecologies are evolving while remaining deeply interconnected. A key focus area is the role of institutions in shaping solidarities and supporting emerging practices, alongside discussions about creativity in the age of AI and technological change. These conversations explore how artists and designers are working across hand and machine, material knowledge and digital tools, reshaping processes, authorship, and modes of making in contemporary artistic practice.
