The art experts have spoken! Don’t miss these works at Art Mumbai 2026

Rajiv Menon

Khwab by Bhasha Chakrabarti

The Los Angeles-based gallerist and content creator Rajiv Menon was struck by Bhasha Chakrabarti’s Khwab at Experimenter. Through paintings, drawings, quilting and embroidery, Chakrabarti examines how dreams are shaped by personal histories and collective struggles. Working with silk, cotton and old quilts, she reflects on the dreams of historical figures, including Akbar and Tipu Sultan, alongside contemporary thinkers such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. “Technically, she has achieved an incredible depiction of the body and textile,” says Menon. He is impressed by the dramatic way she thinks about dreaming, creating a beautiful framework to think of cross-cultural histories. “A scholarly perspective is embedded within her aesthetic practice, and I truly believe she is one of the great painters of our time,” he concludes. 

Gallery: Experimenter

Prateek Raja

Voices from the Earth: Women, Nature, Power

One of the impressive showcases at Art Mumbai this year is the collaboration between Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) and Saffronart Foundation. It caught the eye of Experimenter Gallery’s co-founder Prateek Raja. He recommends it as a must-see when at the fair. 

Voices from the Earth: Women, Nature, Power brings together practices from Madhubani, Rajwar, Bhil, Baiga, Gond, Jogi, Bengal Patachitra and Warli, exploring the interconnected themes of women, nature, ecology and cultural memory. The exhibition presents vernacular traditions as living practices that evolve through successive generations. It emphasises the relationship between artistic expression and the natural world, where materials such as clay, mud, husk and rice paste become extensions of lived environments, inherited knowledge and cultural identity.

Galleries: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) and Saffronart Foundation

Harpreet Narula

A landscape by Paresh Maity

Designer and artist Harpreet Narula can’t take his eyes off Paresh Maity’s large and stunning yellow landscape at the Art Alive gallery booth. “It’s stunning and meditative,” he says. The vibrant painting shows Maity’s exploration of light and colour, which he has mastered. 

Gallery: Art Alive

Pratap Morey

Pilgrims by Hemali Vedalia

Mumbai’s Pratap Morey finds great appeal in the celebration of the everyday in artist Hemali Vedalia’s work Pilgrims at sub:continent. It features a group of women seated in what looks like a local bus. Depicting the small moments of life, Vadalia invites her viewers to pause and just be. “She is one of the finest painters of India,” says Morey. “She is incredibly good at transforming the most banal, everyday occurrences and objects into something remarkable, which is quite extraordinary.” Morey also admires her mastery of oil on canvas and her subtle brushstrokes.

Gallery: sub:continent 

Vivek Radhakrishnan

Threshold of Silence by Subhakar Tadi

Vivek Radhakrishnan, the founder of KYNKYNY, looked around the fair for a bit to try and spot a work that he would like to talk about. One of his picks is Subhakar Tadi’s Threshold of Silence at Akara Contemporary. “I am a big fan of Subhankar’s work, because he creates opportunities to imagine and feel stories that are full of mystery, tension, and a sense of suspense,” says Radhakrishnan. “He is never scared of expressing his thoughts and opinions on sociopolitical issues, communicated with great technique,” he affirms. 

Gallery: Akara Contemporary 

Jiten Thukral

Sounds Heard in Complete Silence I, II, III and IV by Mansha Chhatwal

Jiten Thukral, one half of contemporary art duo Thukral and Tagra, was scanning a panel of small works when we caught up with him at the fair. What sparked his curiosity? It was  Mansha Chhatwal’s small but powerful pieces, titled Sounds Heard in Complete Silence I, II, III and IV, displayed by Delhi’s Blueprint 12 Gallery. Chhatwal’s creations explore the increasing literary censorship prevalent in India recently. “She employs a minimal and thoughtful way to talk about bans on books and literary censorship through her work,” marvels Thukral. “The blacked-out pages evoke loss of communication and dialogue while still holding space for memory, resistance and voices that refuse to disappear,” he adds.

Gallery: Blueprint 12

Paresh Maity

Untitled by KS Kulkarni 

Master painter Paresh Maity had an emotional moment when he encountered the late artist KS Kulkarni’s depiction of Pablo Picasso’s famous Guernica (1937) at the AINA gallery space. “I have closely known Kulkarni and have always admired him and his work,” says Maity. “His unusual take on Guernica is absolutely phenomenal,” he adds. A teacher at Mumbai’s Sir J. J. School of Art, Kulkarni exemplified modernist synthesis in Cubism. It also reflects the artist’s fascination with tribal art and ancient Mayan forms. 

Gallery: AINA Gallery 

T Venkanna

Elif by Reyaz Badaruddin

Artist T Venkanna, who just concluded a show in London, picks Reyaz Badaruddin’s Elif at Gallery Ske. The National awardee’s practice probes the space in between traditional and contemporary, function and abstraction and art and craft. Working with clay, he removes everyday objects from their utilitarian context and presents them as sculptures. “I am impressed with his choice of material, terracotta, how he depicts it and his abstract composition,” says Venkanna. “Yet, these are recognisable forms. Fragmented yet composed, leaving the viewer with much to think about,” he avers. 

Gallery: Ske

Reena Lath

Works by Shyamal Dutta Ray

Reena Lath, the co-founder of Akar Prakar, was struck by late artist Shyamal Dutta Ray’s works at Art Pilgrim and DAG. “His technique is exceptional,” says Lath. “I also find his depiction of life very interesting,” she adds. His works are witty and tongue-in-cheek, often depicting the pathos of life and the human condition with sarcasm. He will depict a king in all his glory, but with an empty throne. Dutta Ray had seen the Bengal famine up close, which greatly shaped his works.  

Galleries: Art Pilgrim and DAG

Shilpa Gupta

Until the End of the World by Madhuban Mitra and Manas Bhattacharya

Trust artist Shilpa Gupta to pick an unconventional work. Photographers Madhuban Mitra and Manas Bhattacharya’s photo series Until the End of the World looks at cities across the world. The pictures survey urbanism, built environment, architecture and street life through the history of cinema. “This work has still stayed with me,” says Gupta even the day after she visited Art Mumbai. 

Gallery: PhotoInk

Read more: Jenjum Gadi creates a village in brass