Mumbai: The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) will return to Mumbai for the fourth edition of ART MUMBAI, scheduled to be held from November 12 to 15, 2026, at the Royal Western India Turf Club, Mahalaxmi.
Titled Voices from the Earth: Women, Nature, Power, the exhibition will showcase India's diverse vernacular art traditions, including Madhubani, Rajwar, Bhil, Baiga, Gond, Jogi, Bengal Patachitra and Warli. Curated by Dr Preeti Bahadur Ramaswami, Senior Curator and Head of Indian Classical, Folk and Tribal Arts at KNMA, in collaboration with the Saffronart Foundation, it will highlight the creative agency of women artists and their contribution to preserving and evolving these traditions, from the walls of homes and ritual spaces to paper and canvas.
Madhubani And Rajwar Art Installations
Among the highlights will be a large-scale Madhubani work by artists Prerna Jha and Swati Kashyap, inspired by a Naina Jogin drawing by Ganga Devi from the KNMA collection. The work revisits the protective female figure traditionally painted in the marriage chambers of Mithila homes, incorporating a lattice of nagas (serpents).
Another installation will reinterpret the walls of master Rajwar artist Sona Bai Rajwar's home through clay relief, incorporating geometric patterns, jalis and narrative forms. The exhibition will also explore the tradition of Warli Suhvasinis — women who traditionally create Warli paintings on the walls of their homes — in collaboration with researchers and practitioners Mayank and Mayur Vayeda.
Indigenous Art And Cultural Identity
Beyond these commissioned works, the exhibition will examine how indigenous artistic practices evolve across generations and reflect communities' relationship with the natural world. Materials such as clay, mud, husk and rice paste will be explored as expressions of lived environments, inherited knowledge and cultural identity.
The Madhubani tradition will feature works by Ganga Devi, Baua Devi, Anmana Devi and Pushpa Kumari; the Rajwar tradition by Sona Bai Rajwar and Sundari Bai Rajwar; and Bhil art by artists including Lado Bai. Jodhaiya Bai Baiga will represent the Baiga tradition, while Gond artists will include Durga Bai Vyam and Roshini Vyam. Bengal Patachitra artists Suwarna Chitrakar and Tagar Chitrakar, and Jogi artist Teju Ben Jogi, will also be featured.
Women Artists As Custodians And Innovators
Ramaswami said the exhibition celebrates women artists as both custodians and innovators of living traditions. “Presenting these works creates an opportunity to bring them into wider conversations around contemporary art, recognising both their historical significance and continued relevance. The specially commissioned murals further revisit the wall as a site of artistic expression, bringing inherited practices into dialogue with the present,” she said.
Minal Vazirani, President and Co-founder of the Saffronart Foundation and Co-founder of ART MUMBAI, said these traditions were not merely inherited art forms but living practices rooted in communities, nature and generations of knowledge. Their engagement with questions of identity, ecology and the natural world, she said, made them relevant to contemporary artistic conversations.
KNMA To Host Learning Programmes
KNMA will also be the fair's official learning partner and contribute to discussions on the intersections of art, diplomacy and artistic vision, the evolving role of art institutions across Asia and the Middle East, and exchanges between modern and indigenous artistic practices.
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The KNMA Learning Space will offer interactive installations, drawing and printmaking activities, student workshops and artist-led sessions inspired by Seeking Affinities: Intersections of Artistic Practice. In collaboration with Access For ALL, the programme will also include inclusive, multisensory activities to make art accessible to diverse audiences.
Kiran Nadar, Chairperson of KNMA, said art had the potential to build meaningful connections across communities, generations and audiences. The exhibition, she said, celebrates the contributions of women artists and the enduring yet evolving nature of India's vernacular art traditions. She added that the museum's role as Speaker Series Partner would further encourage dialogue, discovery and participation through inclusive learning experiences.
Traditional Indian painting styles that will be on exhibition.
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