Art and about: A spring calendar
Editor’s note: Mekhala Singhal has put together a list of the best exhibitions currently on view in your city, be it contemporary or traditional art. Check out our art calendar for art shows and artists on view in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Kochi.
Written by: Mekhala Singhal
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MUMBAI
Laxman Pai
Drawing from influences and travels across the world, celebrated Goan artist Laxman Pai managed to devise a style that was entirely his own. In addition to his art, Pai also participated in Goa’s liberation movement and even found himself imprisoned during the Satyagraha movement in India’s struggle for independence. Celebrating his centenary year (he was born in Goa in 1926 and died in 2021), this exhibition focuses on the genesis of his style. It looks at the period from the 1950s to the ’70s—Pai’s formative years—and how he evolved and developed his own voice as an artist, with an emphasis on landscapes and everyday life.
When: Till 28 March
Where: Akara Art Gallery
UNTITLED (YOUNG WOMAN), 1960
Amit Ambalal
Making use of its own language of colours and deeply embedded in the Nathdwara and Pichwai styles of art from Rajasthan, this exhibition features new works from Ahmedabad-born artist Amit Ambalal. The work is joyful and humorous, highlighting the natural world and its interconnectedness.
When: Till 31 March
Where: Sakshi Gallery
NAMASTE, 2025
Vinayak Sarwankar
Vinayak Sarwankar, too, has prioritised humour and play in this collection of multimedia work, bringing together childhood memory and identity. He blends traditional methods with modern styles, with the pieces on view a study in contrasts: simple yet complex; childlike yet sophisticated.
When: Till 5 April
Where: Method Art Gallery
I DON’T NEED TO SEE THE SUN TO FEEL LOVE, 2026
Kaveri Raina
Kaveri Raini interrogates her Kashmiri ancestry and themes of migration in her debut solo exhibition. Lal Ded (or Lalla), the 14th century Kashmiri mystic, features heavily in her work here, through her readings of his poems (translated by Ranjit Hoskote). Raina’s works draw inspiration from these works, with a spirit of abstraction running through the complex ideas of time and space that her sketches contend with.
When: 12 March - 18 April
Where: Experimenter Colaba
LONG LEGS, SLOPPY LIMBS, ASK HIM TO CARRY YOU ACROSS, 2025
DELHI
Threads that Bind: The Kantha Project
Amit Vijaya
Kantha, traditionally a Bengali style of stitching and mending, is treated here not as an ornament but as an act of quilting and repair. The works in this exhibition place Kantha on the same plain as any other recognised textile art form (such as indigo or boro), highlighting the importance of material traditions and wisdoms, as well as the global practice of mending.
When: 11 March – 20 March
Where: Gallery Vayu
PINWHEEL MADNESS
Susanta Panda
Susanta Panda is an artist from Odisha and an avid bird-watcher, living today next to a 250 acre forest in Bengaluru. The nest, thus, has become a motif in his paintings, serving as a symbol of home, warmth, and love. His paintings combine reality with fantasy, paying tribute to nature and how it connects with the manmade world.
When: Till 21 March
Where: Nature Morte
ON THE EDGE, 2022–2023
Liminal Geographies
Paramjit Singh
Paramjit Singh’s landscapes take the viewer on a haunting journey: his work is filled with bright, vibrant colours, with a mysterious light guiding the viewer through it. The paintings evoke an eerie sense of the unknown, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, testing the limits of what is imagined and what is truth.
When: Till 2 April
Where: Vadehra Art Gallery
UNTITLED, 2025
Catch it before it’s gone:
Multiple artists
Twenty-seven artists come together to showcase the relationship between humans and the world through this immersive, diverse exhibition, curated by art critic Girish Shahane. Each artist brings with them a specific style and visual language here, with the featured themes spanning medicine, population, womanhood, nature and more.
When: Till 14 March
Where: Anant Art Gallery
CONSTRUCTIVE LAND I BY DIGBIJAYEE KHATUA, 2025
Mona Bendre
A posthumous exhibition of the works by the late painter Mona Bendre, where she turns to nature to seek inspiration and expression.
UNTITLED, 1968
When: Till 14 March
Where: Art Magnum
UNTITLED, 1968
BANGALORE
Multiple artists
This exhibition, paying homage to art historian BN Goswamy, includes works from across eras, styles, genres, and materials. The one thread tying all these pieces together is a singular, mischievous character: the cat.
When: Till 29 March
Where: Museum of Art and Photography
TWO CATS HOLDING A STOLEN LARGE PRAWN BY JAMINI ROY, 1968
KOLKATA
Chankaya School
With their textile-based practice, the Chanakya School attempts to bridge the gap between the rituals and methods of ancient craft with contemporary processes. The works displayed in this exhibition focus on the role of textiles in human society—their importance in cultures around the world, and the personal and collective relationships we as a people have formed with it.
When: Till 21 March
Where: Experimenter
KOCHI
Multiple artists
This exhibition aims to dismantle the many binaries that run our systems—East-West, traditional-modern, and so forth—imagining a better future for mankind. The work explores how it’s practically impossible to disentangle the act of creating art from the act of resistance and political action.
When: Till 31 March
Where: The Ishara House
THE WORLD OF AMFY B.N. JOSE X FROGMAN BY APPUPEN, 2025
afra eisma, Museum of Art and Photography
This exhibition is made up of two artworks (yes, only two!) through which the artist explores the power of softness in rage and grief, and the power of play and joy in a world as sharp as ours. Using colours, textured material, and a variety of figures, eisma’s work is a reminder of what human connection can feel like, and how the personal and the political interact.
When: Till 31 March
Where: Fort Kochi
HUSH, 2025
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