A living laboratory of art on view at the India Art Fair 2026

The ongoing India Art Fair 2026(till February8) has stopped trying to be a moment on Delhi’s social calendar and has instead, evolved to become a year-round ecosystem.

Under the direction of fair director Jaya Asokan, IAF has evolved from a four-day art event into a year-round “cultural convening point” that feels more like a living laboratory than a static gallery. This year’s edition — featuring a record 133 exhibitors, including 94 galleries, at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds — is less about what is on the walls and more about what is happening in the spaces between them.

The fair welcomes new commissions and large-scale outdoor projects, led by artists and supported by a wide network of art organisations, foundations and patrons. Across the city, New Delhi’s dynamic cultural landscape has come alive through an extensive Parallel Programme featuring exhibitions and activations that extend the fair’s reach into the wider arts ecosystem. Reflecting on her primary focus, Asokan says she hopes to strengthen the IAF as a definitive destination for discovering South Asian modern and contemporary art. “The aim has also been to build depth, context and continuity around the fair. One of the major things that has been done under my tenure is to have programming through the year. A significant area of attention has also been curatorial clarity, particularly across expanding sections like design, which we launched a few years ago,” she adds.

Ashiesh Shah Svarnbhumi 2025 Cast Brass Dhokra Cubes
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The four days of the fair feature some of India’s most important contemporary galleries, including Archer Art Gallery, Art Exposure, Chawla Art Gallery, DAG, Kumar Gallery, Akara, Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, Chatterjee & Lal and Gallery Espace among others. International galleries such as David Zwirner, neugerriemschneider, Galleria Continua and Aicon Contemporary are showcasing works by renowned South Asian and diaspora artists, including Huma Bhabha, Shilpa Gupta, Anish Kapoor and Adeela Suleman respectively.

In the expanded Design section, 14 trailblazing design studios, and two major design galleries are showing their work, while the newly-designed Institutions section has first-time participants including Sabyasachi Art Foundation Gallery, Ardee Foundation, and Mapin Foundation, along with returning institutions like the Australian High Commission, Serendipity Arts, Britto Arts Trust and others.

IAF also features a vibrant display of outdoor projects and commissions, with large-scale works that respond to questions of ecology, gender, technology and material experimentation. One of the highlights of this section is a new KNMA commission titled Extinction Archive by Patiala-based visual artist Kulpreet Singh, who speaks of “animal, fungal, and plant species” across the world drawn from the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation (IUCN).

Khadim Ali Untitled 2024 (Machine and Hand Embroidery on Fabric)
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Curator Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi points out that Singh’s journey with the Extinction Archive started with the artist trying to understand which species go extinct with the transitions that are happening within the agrarian ecosystems. “One of the questions he is interested in, is to see what it looks like when we visualise extinction,” he says. The project consists of 900 small paper works treated in pesticide and interlaced with ash from stubble burning in Punjab.

Serendipity Arts is making its presence felt with The Charpai Project, conceptualised by Ayush Kasliwal and re-envisioned through a digital intervention by AI artist Goji, while Paresh Maity’s monumental outdoor sculpture, supported by Art Alive Gallery, and a large-scale installation by Deepak Kumar, presented by Exhibit 320, expand the possibilities of material and form. Beyond the fair, parallel programming has a great mix of contemporary art and traditional craft spread across some of Delhi’s most iconic spots.

Highlights include a significant new exhibition titled Conjectures on a Paper Sky by Jitish Kallat at Bikaner House, a massive retrospective of the legendary Tyeb Mehta at KNMA, a brand-new body of work from Sudarshan Shetty at Galleryskye and the 2025 Cheongju Craft Biennale bringing a global perspective to textiles and craftsmanship to the Crafts Museum.

F.U.C.K, 2024, Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, Nature Morte and Galleria Continua,
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei marks his debut solo exhibition in India with a focussed selection of works across mediums at Nature Morte, spanning almost 30 years of his creative activity, including his large-scale toy-brick compositions Surfing (After Hokusai) and Water Lilies, alongside works that reflect his long-standing investigation into material evidence, cultural memory, and the politics of images. Says Peter Nagy, co-director, Nature Morte, “Ai Weiwei has an unmatched ability to hold the ancient and the contemporary in the same frame — craft and critique, beauty and blunt truth. Presenting his first solo show in India feels both overdue and essential, especially now, when the politics of images, movement, and belonging are shaping lives everywhere — including here.”

Another first is the fair’s first international artist in residence from Sri Lanka, Dumiduni Illangasinghe, in partnership with KALĀ, whose practice explores fragility, resilience, and regeneration through mixed media and site-responsive installation. Sprinkled through these four days are stimulating conversations with leading designers and artists, as well as live performance arts focussing on sound, movement, and improvisation.

JK Next station Sultanpur 2025 Acrylic on Fabriano-paper
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

If the lineup feels a bit overwhelming or you’re just not sure where to start, guided tours in Hindi and English, and a select few in the Indian Sign Language (ISL), can help you navigate the fair without the stress of missing the best bits. Whether you are a seasoned collector or a curious first-timer, this year’s fair proves that art in South Asia is no longer a spectator sport; it is a vibrant, year-round conversation.

On till Februrary 8. Friday Select VIP Preview, 11am – 7pm, Saturday 10am – 7pm, Sunday 10 am-6 pm. Tickets starting from ₹800 available on BookMyShow

Published – February 06, 2026 10:17 am IST