In a significant showcase last month, three major Indian art galleries—Jhaveri Contemporary, Vadehra Art Gallery and Chemould Prescott Road—came together to spotlight South Asian resident and diaspora artists in London. Their joint presentation was displayed at No. 9 Cork Street, Frieze’s exhibition space in the city. It also ended up being a part of the London Gallery Weekend, which drew participation from over 130 galleries. No. 9 Cork Street provided the Indian galleries a platform to be represented at this event despite not having a permanent physical space in the city.
The Gallery Weekend is an important cog in London’s art calendar and with Cork Street celebrating its centenary this year, the 2025 edition became all the more significant. The event was attended by the likes of Salman Rushdie, Ghanaian-British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah, and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as by representatives of key museums such as the Tate, Barbican and the Royal Academy. In a city where institutional interest for contemporary artists from the subcontinent has been growing steadily, this presentation by three Indian galleries could be a catalyst for greater interest in the long run.
“In London, collectors have a broader outlook. In the context of South Asian art, they are not necessarily collecting geographically but thematically or generationally. The works have to speak to issues that concern collectors independent of where they come from,” shares Amrita Jhaveri of Jhaveri Contemporary. “Having said that, many international collectors are attracted to the India story. When they travel to our country for work, they also explore our art.” Jhaveri Contemporary presented Horizons, a group exhibition featuring works by Muhanned Cader, Seher Shah and Lubna Chowdhary. It also created a dedicated section of Permindar Kaur’s works—intended to serve as a curtain raiser for her upcoming exhibition at the Pitzhanger Manor in London.
Cader’s series of small-sized oil paintings, Nightscapes (1999), which had been created during the most intense part of the Sri Lankan civil war, stood out. Painted in oil on plywood, they revealed evocative scenes where dusk grudgingly gave way to darkness. The irregular shapes of his canvases spoke of the lives distorted by the conflict, and echoed the marginalised voices from that period.
Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery presented new work by contemporary artist Biraaj Dodiya, which was in dialogue with a selection of paintings by the late artist-poet Gieve Patel. “We have been expanding our presence in London due to growing interest from institutions and prominent collectors,” shares gallerist Roshini Vadehra. The gallery had previously showcased at No. 9 Cork Street in 2022 with a solo of Anju Dodiya’s works followed by a significant exhibition of Sudhir Patwardhan’s paintings last year.
In the recent presentation, one of the most compelling paintings on showcase was Patel’s Crushed Head (1984), which showed the shattered remains of a person who had suffered great trauma. In response, Dodiya created funerary head rests inspired by ancient cultures as part of the larger series. “Finding joy in Gieve’s application of paint also means knocking one’s head against his Crushed Head and the Mourners. Paint mimics the residue of the body. The violence of the encounter marks our spaces with grief and a quiet introspection,” she reflected in the curatorial essay.
Chemould Prescott Road showed a solo exhibition of works by Rashid Rana. The highlight was Fractured Moment (2025), a frame-by-frame breakdown of a CCTV capture of the night sky in Gaza, which showed it being intermittently lit up by the Israeli air strikes. The large wallpaper work engulfed the whole room figuratively putting the visitor in the centre of a war zone. What made the work striking was that the subject of the images, which seemed innocuous from afar, became clear only upon closer observation.
“There is a need for artists to speak up with a sense of urgency, especially in the context of Gaza. When I saw Rashid’s work, I immediately felt that having a room dedicated to it would be important at this point in time,” reveals Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Prescott Road.
Whether it was Rana’s array of images from Gaza, Cader’s haunting reflections from the Sri Lankan conflict, or Patel’s poignant rendition of the common man’s trauma—the works stood out for their impact on the human psyche, and also allowed the three exhibitions to connect with each other.
Anindo Sen is an independent art writer.