Trade your brunch for art! Your ultimate guide to the Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2025

Why should designers care about art? Because art gives you a perspective of the cultural zeitgeist. It tells you what we value, our fears and sometimes how to eat a mushroom. Looking at you, Warhol. Want to challenge your perceptions? The 13th edition of Mumbai Gallery Weekend from 9th – 12th January 2025 presents the perfect opportunity.

As architectural critic Kaiwan Mehta aptly observes, “There’s a consonance between different galleries and a sense of collegiality with multiple artists and curators showing their work. I think once in a while, you need an intellectual coming-together moment in the city.” 

ELLE DECOR India recommends the best art destinations at Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2025 for unexpected inspirations and narratives.

#1 Chemould Prescott Road, Fort

RADIO CEYLON PAINTINGS: VOL. I featuring Atul Dodiya 

What to see: This exhibition features portraits of renowned Hindi film music composers and singers from the 1940s-1960s, reflecting the artist’s personal nostalgia for the music of his youth and honouring the significant contributions of these artists to a secular Indian culture.

Artwork by Atul Dodiya

#2 DAG, Colaba

ONCE UPON A TIME IN BOMBAY featuring multiple artists

What to see: Reflecting a city that continues to be a symbol of opportunity and cosmopolitanism, the exhibition showcases Bombay’s transformation from seven islands to a thriving urban centre.

Artwork by J D Gondhalekar

Map of Bombay, 1923

#3 Gallery XXL, Colaba

ON THE CUSP OF THE EIGHTH DAY featuring Aravani Art Project

What to see: Aligning with Mumbai Pride Month, this is the first solo show of the artist collective led by trans and cis women. You might have noticed their colourful mural across the city from Mahim to Soho House. This is your chance to peek behind the facade and question the dualities surrounding gender, identity, expression and sexuality that surrounds us all. 

#4 47-A, Khotachiwadi

MAKING AND WONDER featuring Ateev Anand, Busride Design Studio, Chicory Chai, Karleo, Rajeev Thakker, Rooshad Shroff, ROSANI by Rohitash Notani, SHED, Studio Hinge and Urvashi Kaur

What to see: Curated by Kaiwan Mehta, the show features makers from the interior and fashion design that have captured the popular imagination in recent years. It focuses on the sense of lasting wonder and thoughtfulness that is associated with the process of creation. 

#5 | Nine Fish Art Gallery and Dot Line Space Art Foundation, Byculla

माटी कहे कुम्हार से featuring Sandeep Mancheka

What to see: A Dialogue on Creativity, Identity, and Language, the title translates directly to “the clay speaks to the potter.” Curated by Gourmoni Das with sensitivity and insight, the exhibition explores the material of clay as a medium of self-expression, cultural reflection and artistic innovation. 

#6 Tao Art Gallery, Worli

BRAIN ROT: THE LIFE YOU LIVE? featuring Viraj Khanna

What to see: Inspired by Oxford’s word of the year 2024 “brain rot”,  Viraj’s draws from themes of fragility, imperfection and society’s pursuit of perfection while commenting on the impact of social media and online representation.

#7  Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Fort

FOSSILS OF FORCE featuring Kulpreet Singh

What to see: Drawing on his experiences from the 2020-2021 farmers’ movement, Kulpreet uses the iconography of nails and barricades to depict the systemic pressures faced by farmers, while simultaneously honouring those who lost their lives and celebrating the spirit of communal feeding through langar. The show’s curatorial advisor is Birgid Uccia.

#8 Art and Charlie, Bandra

LAND THAT LIVES THROUGH US featuring Anahita Alavi, Ayesha Amjad, Gopa Trivedi, Jayant Silva and Ravi Kumawat, Manjot Kaur, Ramsha Haider, Simran Kaur Panesar, Sujay Sanan, Tanjima Kar Sekh and Yasmin Hayat

What to see: By highlighting the subtle and intricate, curator Khushboo Jain aims to contribute to the decolonisation of the art of miniature paintings, reclaiming it as a dynamic, evolving practice relevant to contemporary discourse and addressing the re-imagination of cultural identity.

#9 Project 88, Colaba

WHERE SHOULD THE BIRDS FLY AFTER THE LAST SKY? featuring Prajakta Potnis

What to see: Through scale-based experiments, Prajakta investigates troubling intimacies, such as the relationship between nuclear war and the kitchen, and between ingestion and annihilation, to visualise the uncanny exceptions in the everyday.

#10 Art and Soul, Worli

CONVERSATION AMONG THE RUINS featuring Lalitha Lajmi, Jinsook Shinde, Jayasri Burman, Rekha Rodwittiya, Revati Sharma Singh, Meenakshi Nihalani, Tejaswini Sonawane and Harshitha Jois

What to see: ‘Conversation Among the Ruins,’ draws upon Sylvia Plath’s ruminations uniting an intergenerational roster of women artists – each embodying the indomitable spirit of rebellion and resistance, and the pursuit of rebuilding. Breaking barriers of time and generation divides, their perseverance mirrors the psyche-knot of Plath’s protagonist, composed and resilient amidst the ruins. This exhibition is an ode to the heroic act of enduring and creating amid hardships. Conceptualised in conjunction with the Barkhat Beej Foundation, the new haven emboldening and empowering young female artists. Reclaiming voices across generations, it is a vibrant search for the magic and rhythm woven within ruins. 

#11 Galerie ISA, Fort
MAPS OF THE INVISIBLE featuring Santiago Giralda

What to see: Each painting being a window into a distant and abstract new world invites us to question our intimate relationship with nature, technology and the self. 

#12 Akara Contemporary

OF SILENCE AND WHITE NOISE featuring Sathi Guin

What to see: Using dots and lines, Sathi’s work invites you to introspect intangible thoughts, habit patterns, and fleeting fixations that range from the mundane to the deeply engrossing.

#13 Gallery Masakara
Black Blue Yellow featuring T. Venkanna

What to see: The show deliberates on the artist’s unflinching meditations on death and exploration of sexuality, drawing on Indian and European myths, archetypes and artistic traditions while situating the subject within the current sociological context.

#14 Art Musings
Resonance featuring various artists

What to see: On the occasion of the gallery’s 25th anniversary Art Musings exhibits work by stellar practitioners of distinctive approaches across generations, medium and vocabulary.

#15 TARQ

GROUNDED featuring Soghra Khurasani

What to see: Expanding on the artist’s ongoing dialogue with self and nature, this series dives into the idea of the interconnectedness of all living things and how we are tethered to the Earth which remains our shared home. 

Looking for more art inspiration? You must check out APRE Art House, æquō Gallery, Chemould CoLab, Jhaveri Contemporary, Milaaya Art Gallery and Nature Morte. Apart from the locations that are participating in Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2025, there are parallel exhibitions at The Guild & Somaiya Vidyavihar University featuring work by Jyoti Bhatt, Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation featuring Dayanita Singh’s art and the Space 118 Art Foundation covering Saloni Doshi’s intriguing furniture collection.

Read more:Inside an art lovers’ gallery-like home in Mumbai designed by Studio Wodehouse