In just its third year, Art Mumbai, an annual celebration of South Asian art and artists, has become a fixture for patrons, collectors, art lovers and enthusiasts in the region. Art Mumbai is scheduled to be held from November 13-16, 2025, at Mahalaxmi Racecourse and will feature approximately 2000 artworks, host 82 exhibitors from India and around the world, and a Speaker Series that spotlights South Asian patronage shaping global art, education-driven cultural growth. Some of the prominent Indian galleries participating include Experimenter, DAG, Akar Prakar, Nature Morte, Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, Gallery Espace, and TAR.
Three years ago, Art Mumbai’s journey began when Conor Macklin of the Grosvenor Gallery, Nakul Chawla of the Chawla Gallery, Delhi, and Dinesh and Minal Vazirani of Saffron Art, Mumbai came together for their love for Mumbai, only to realise that the city does not have to channel their passion for art. “We realised that for a city of this size and with an active art market as well as all the serious collector community, it was a crying shame that there was no art fair. It was also a great opportunity,” shares Macklin. The quartet decided to take the plunge and organise the first edition of Art Mumbai.
Grace Zheng Lu's Water in Dripping by Sundaram Tagore Gallery |
For Macklin, the highlight of the fair is discovering new artists in the contemporary tent. “Because you see the youngest talent coming out of South Asia, whether it's from Sri Lanka, Nepal or from Delhi and Calcutta.” At the same time, the modern art tent that is a temporary home to the greats like MF Hussein and SH Raza offers tranquillity. Macklin, who is also the co-founder of Art Mumbai, throws light on Mumbai’s biggest art event.
How has Art Mumbai evolved in the last three years?
When we first started in 2023, we were swimming against the tide as such. But the first edition was a great success and we realised that there was a huge demand, not only in terms of the galleries who wanted to exhibit in Mumbai, but also the locals who had a huge appetite to explore and appreciate the art installations and displays at the fair. So, in our third edition, we've had a 60% increase in galleries. We've had a significant increase in international galleries coming, and we've also seen a significant increase in visitor numbers to the fair as well. It's been a tremendous success and a tremendous journey.
Shape Shifting Field by Savia Mahajan |
How does the city of Mumbai benefit from Art Mumbai?
The great thing about art fairs is that you can see a broad section of all the galleries exhibiting Indian modern art or Indian contemporary art under one roof. If you were to go around all the galleries in Mumbai, it would take you a long time. But if you come to Art Mumbai, all the galleries are open with artists showcasing their most exciting and freshest works.
It is also a great opportunity for the industry to come together to energise and galvanise. I'm particularly proud of Art Mumbai 2025 because the whole city will be talking about art with 80-odd galleries showing the best of Indian and South Asian art and some of the best international artists like Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor. The city’s museums also have special exhibitions like the Krishen Khanna exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art. The city galleries have exhibitions at the same time as well—their Art Night Thursday has been shifted to Art Night Tuesday for the fair.
Anish Kapoor's Burple to Light Burple by Galleria Continua |
What is the overarching theme for Art Mumbai 2025?
The theme is obviously that we're riding on the success of South Asian art and culture. All eyes of the world are looking at this success story because the prices have gone extremely high. We're riding on a wave of optimism and a rise in interest globally in South Asian art and culture. There's an exceptional demand from foreign visitors and professionals, but also private individuals coming to Mumbai to see, get a showcase and get a feel of the South Asian story, not just in modern art, but also in traditional miniatures and antiquities. This is also driven by the great economic success of India.
Sumakshi Singh's Monuments |
What is making Art Mumbai such a success?
All we do is we just create a great ecosystem for all these things to happen. We try and bring as many intellectual ideas and concepts to the fair. What is very successful is our programming. We have a wonderful series of talks and lectures, which are quite heavyweight, but in the context of the art fair, they become quite practical. And because these wonderful minds are talking about these clever ideas, when you do come, they look quite complicated, but when you hear them speak, you come away learning a lot.
Viren Tanwar's The Story Without End by Aicon Contemporary |
What’s new at the Sculpture Park this year?
The beauty of Art Mumbai is that it's set in the most gorgeous setting, in the centre of the city, in the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, which is filled with wonderful gardens and trees. Within this unique arena, this year we felt it was a good time to focus on women sculptors. It's a great way of walking through outside the fair. It's important to engage with and support these artists who don't normally get visibility because sculptures are very expensive and very cumbersome to exhibit in the main fairs.
L-R_ Conor Macklin, Minal Vazirani, Nakul Dev Chawla, Dinesh Vazirani, Co - Founders of Art Mumbai 2024 |
What are the exhibits and showcases that you are looking forward to and why?
We have a wonderful exhibition this year titled TYEB MEHTA - Bearing Weight (with the lightness of being). Mehta is one of India's founding modern masters and to celebrate his birth centenary, 40 pieces from Mehta’s celebrated series, alongside early drawings and paintings, will be showcased at Art Mumbai.
Additionally, Paresh Maitty’s installation, Moksha, will be up and is going to be a cool exhibit. There is Vichitra, a mixed-media exhibit by Tejal Patni, as well, who had an immersive piece that was very successful last year. He's coming back with another immersive piece, Empty Folder - 0, this year. That's what I would recommend people to do, as well as, if they can, go and see one of the talks in the programming.
