India Art Fair closes 16th edition with record exhibitor numbers, robust sales and strong international attendance
The 2025 fair experienced robust sales, attracting both established and new collectors from across South Asia and around the world, along with strong international institutional attendance. A record number of 120 exhibitors showcased work by leading names in art and design, enhancing the fair’s prominence in the global art scene. The program included insightful talks featuring major museum directors from around the globe, as well as collaborative projects with esteemed institutions like the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Sharjah Art Foundation. Additionally, the Swali Craft Prize was launched, marking India’s first grant that recognizes contemporary craft innovation; the winning artist will collaborate to create an ambitious installation with the Chanakya School of Craft, set to be unveiled at the India Art Fair in 2026.
The 16th edition of India Art Fair, the leading platform for modern and contemporary art from India and South Asia, concluded with robust sales and strong attendance from both local and international audiences. Taking place from 6-9 February 2025 at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi and featuring a record 120 exhibitors, the fair brought together a diverse range of galleries, collectors, institutions, artists, and designers, to foster vital opportunities for creative dialogue and exchange. Supported by BMW India for the ninth consecutive year, the fair presented the best of modern and contemporary art from India and South Asia, offering a platform for global and local audiences to explore the region’s vibrant creative landscape.
“India Art Fair 2025 was a particularly dynamic edition, with ambitious gallery presentations and rare offerings for the strong group of visiting collectors. We have hosted celebrated artists, gallerists and representatives from leading museums and institutions from across the world at the fair this year. The fair is built on a collaborative spirit, something that was clearly evident in the programme this year with contributions from organisations like Khoj International Artists’ Association, Chennai Photo Biennale, Chanakya Foundation, Bukhara Biennial, Sharjah Biennial and many more, all demonstrating the depth of support for the fair from the creative community. As we now close the fair, we look ahead to furthering our programming and activations by bringing them to even more cities around the country to engage with artists, galleries and collectors throughout the year.” – Jaya Asokan, Fair Director, India Art Fair
“We are well into the second decade of India Art Fair and I am not exaggerating when I say everything has turned out absolutely superb. The galleries, the quality of the works, the visitors, the programmes surrounding the fair have not only proven once against the importance of India Art Fair as a platform for Indian contemporary art but also as a crucial international hub where many visitors get to explore and understand the importance of contemporary South Asian art.” – Dr. Thomas Girst, Head of Cultural Engagement, BMW Group
Strong attendance from major private collectors as well as representatives from local, regional, and international art institutions, highlighted the fair’s firmly established reputation as a key event in the art world calendar, and a gateway for global visitors to discover art from India and South Asia. VIP attendance on the opening day included curators from institutions such as the Royal Academy, 13th Berlin Biennale, Guggenheim Museum, Asian Art Museum, Ashmolean Museum and MoMA. The fair was attended by leading directors and senior representatives from LACMA, DIA Art Foundation, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Delfina Foundation, Stedlijk Museum, Auckland Art Gallery and Haus der Kunst amongst others. Strong representation from Indian institutions and museums included Bhau Dji Lad Museum, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Khoj International Artists Association, Chennai Photo Biennale and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Throughout the fair week, galleries reported robust sales to both established and emerging collectors highlighting the strength of the Indian market. A snapshot of reported sales includes – Vadehra Art Gallery sold 90% of their booth on the first day, with prices ranging from ₹ 2,00,000 to ₹ 2,60,00,000, including works by Sudhir Patwardhan, Atul Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta, and Vivan Sundaram. On the first day, David Zwirner sold a painting by Portia Zvavahera, a painting by Oscar Murillo, a sculpture by Huma Bhabha, and a painting by Sosa Joseph with prices ranging from ₹ 10,00,000 to ₹ 3,90,00,000 and Carpenters Workshop Gallery made sales worth ₹ 5,21,00,000. Nature Morte sold 70% of their booth by the second day including a Jitish Kallat for around ₹ 86,85,000. Art Exposure sold six works by Buddhadev Mukherjee for ₹ 38,00,000 in total, with three going to Kiran Nadar, one to another Indian collector, and the final two to a US-based collector. Iram Gallery sold works by Promiti Husain and Sangeeta Sandrasegar, as well as a large work by Dinar Sultana to an Indian collector for ₹ 20,84,000. Ashvita’s sold five works by D P Roychowdhury to a Mumbai-based collector for ₹ 59,92,000. Shrine Empire sold two works by Nandita Kumar for over ₹ 26,00,000 each and multiple smaller works at the ₹ 8,68,000 price point. GALLERYSKE sold works ranging from ₹ 1,12,000 to ₹ 3,47,00,000.
Collectors at the fair included: Kiran & Roshni Nadar, Sangeeta & Tarini Jindal, Sunil Munjal, Shalini Passi, Lekha Poddar, Tarana Sawhney, Feroze & Mohit Gujral, Varun Thapar, Shobhana Bhartia, Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh and Gauravi Kumari, Aashti Bhartia, Miheeka Daggubati, Sreenivasan Jain, Anu Menda, Tara Vacchani, Radhika Chopra, Rajan Anandan, Jaiveer Johal, Mira Nair and Ritu Kumar. The fair also welcomed industry groups from architecture, interior design, finance and law such as the AD100 group, Amex Centurion, Khaitan & Co and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.
“India is an important voice in the contemporary art world. The number of artists that have been circulating internationally have become ambassadors for an ecosystem that is making an impact way beyond it can imagine. The fair is elegant, focused on the contemporary and encompasses craft, design, and workshops. The fair understands that its role is to incubate not only the market but to be a site of knowledge, camaraderie and cultural exchange.” – Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Artistic Director, Documenta 16
“I was very excited to participate in this year’s India Art Fair with a mini-marathon interview session on video games with artists Afrah Shafiq, Dhruv Jani (Studio Oleomingus), Gayatri Kodikal, and Sahej Rahal. It was great to add a new chapter to the Khoj Marathon series and launch a publication of the original conversations from 2011 that took place in Lodhi Gardens. India Art Fair is a brilliant occasion to reconnect with the art scene in India, and it was wonderful to connect with the new younger generation of artists that have emerged in the last decade and to see the incredibly dynamic scene here.” – Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries
“What is remarkable about this edition of the fair is that it incorporated many different aspects of what is considered art, not just what the galleries present but also including design, outdoor installations and music. The energy of the fair has been very uplifting. The galleries have pushed themselves to present some of their best artists. It’s so important that the talks also provide an intellectual context for the art, it’s not just about buying and selling.” – Tasneem Mehta, Managing Trustee and Director, Dr, Bhau Dji Lad Museum
“I’d like to really thank the India Art Fair for organising this wonderful talks series and the exhibitions, everything was so incredibly uplifting. This is a real opportunity to start thinking about new connections, new networks; really building more links between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and thinking about how we can show the world what a collective humanity looks like, moving away from those colonial narratives that we are all trying to sidestep, to really shape a new narrative. It’s been an incredibly positive experience.” – Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director, African Artists’ Foundation and LagosPhoto Festival
“The art fair plays an important role in many ways including building a market and an audience for the arts if it is to survive and thrive. And each successive year has seen the India Art fair assemble those building blocks gradually. This year IAF seems to have engaged very successfully with audiences judging from the number of people who swarmed the venue. It was great to be a part of the talks series- Growing Focus that integrated pedagogy and scholarship into the programme so that we have a balance between learning and commerce as we all come together to grow and support the arts in India.” – Kamini Sawhney Independent Curator and Former Director, Museum of Art & Photography, Bangalore
“India Art Fair 2025 instantiated a liminal space where the conventions of art, design, and craft were productively disrupted, enabling the emergence of novel forms of creative practice and cultural production.” – Feroze Gujral, Founder and Director, The Gujral Foundation
“India Art Fair has truly become a key moment of annual congregation in the art calendar. This year, I feel the enhanced infrastructure and dynamic programming have drawn even more visitors from across the world, alongside a surge in local participation beyond the traditional art audience. Galleries, too, are continuously iterating and refining their practice, adapting to the evolving format of the art fair.” – Jitish Kallat, artist and curator
“This is our 15th year participating at India Art Fair with a presentation of over 20 new commissions by artists from our program. It was an exciting edition of the fair and we placed several works in important private and public collections in India and abroad. The fair looks better than ever before. We had meaningful conversations with visiting curators from several important institutions. We also felt that the public engagement of the fair with the projects has also gone up a notch. We look forward to returning next year.” – Prateek Raja, Director, Experimenter
“It’s been a very successful four days that built on the previous three years we have attended the fair. We’ve engaged with collectors we know but have also met new people who are interested in our programme, strengthening our foundation in the region for the future.” – James Green, Senior Director, Head of London, David Zwirner
“The growth of the art fair, and its increasing importance in the global arts ecosystem, has motivated us to present ambitious works this year; we’re happy that many have found great homes over the last couple of days.” – Tara Lal and Mort Chatterjee, Founders, Chatterjee and Lal
“The sales have been very good this year and every year they have been escalating. The new collector base has increased; a lot of first time buyers were at the fair as well as the regular international buyers who have been coming every year. The first day of sales showed great results.” – Riddhi Bhalla, Co-Founder, Blueprint 12
“The fair has been tremendous. We have sold some of the biggest items we brought including works by Marten Baas and Nacho Carbonell which were acquired on the first day of the fair.” – Loïc Le Gaillard, Co-Founder, Carpenters Workshop Gallery
“We are very happy; there has been a great energy and lots of people at the fair. We have sold multiples of Debasish Mukherjee, Jayashree Chakravarty and Manish Pushkale and have met new people. We almost had a sold out show of Ganesh Haloi at the gallery which is part of the India Art Fair parallel programme and a major part of the works there are going to an institution.” – Reena Lath, Director, Akar Prakar
“This year has been the best edition of the fair so far. We’ve had very good sales, and interest in our artists. We sold work by Nandita Kumar to established collectors as well as younger buyers.” – Shefali Somani, Director, Shrine Empire
“India Art Fair is the perfect platform to blur the boundaries between what is art and what is design and to look at art as a bracketless medium and have artists like me showcase my work and sell them through this platform. The booth has been very well appreciated which we are really excited about and this time we felt that there was a great footfall and response. I met a lot of new and very engaged people.” – Ashish Shah, Designer
“Our third show at India Art Fair offered an incredible opportunity to present the evolving narrative of Indian craftsmanship on home ground. Our work aims to highlight how centuries-old techniques can hold their place in modern spaces while continuing to innovate. At this edition, we saw strong sales across all categories and explored several potential collaborations.” – Vikram Goyal, Designer
The 17th edition of India Art Fair Delhi will take place at NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi from 5 – 8 February 2026
