A Homegrown Guide To Must-See Art Exhibitions Across India This October

I love the colder months in India, when the scorching sun and humid monsoon give way to pleasant, temperate days across the country. The cooler, more temperate days of autumn and winter make for the perfect time to spend an afternoon moving between galleries, lingering over exhibitions, and ending the evening with dinner in the city. As the monsoon recedes and the air turns colder, Indian art galleries offer plenty of reasons to step out.

This October, India’s art scene is looking back, but not necessarily with nostalgia. Across galleries in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru, exhibitions are revisiting modernism, memory, displacement and the histories that continue to shape contemporary artistic practice. From stalwarts of Indian Modernism like Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, and Satish Gujral to contemporary artists like Arpita Akhanda, who works through inherited archives and decades of experimentation, these shows approach the past as something unfinished—open to reinterpretation, fragmentation, and new connections. Here are five exhibitions to see this season.

Here are five exhibitions to add to your gallery-hopping — and perhaps your next art date — list this fall, no matter where you are in the country:

‘Untimely Modernists’, curated by Parul Dave Mukherji at Akar Prakar, New Delhi, brings together selected works by three pivotal figures of Indian modernism: Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. Rather than presenting their practices in linear chronology, the exhibition examines how each artist anticipated ruptures in modernist ideas about originality, authorship, representation, and the singular artwork.

Spanning different phases of their practices, the exhibition places Sher-Gil, Roy, and Tagore within a shared yet non-linear temporal landscape. From Tagore’s blurring of writing and drawing to Sher-Gil’s interrogation of the East-West divide and Roy’s turn towards folk idioms and repeatable forms, their work reveals distinct ways of challenging established artistic conventions. The exhibition consequently revisits Indian modernism as a living, unfinished discourse in which past, present and future continually overlap. ‘Untimely Modernists’ is on view at Akar Prakar, New Delhi, till 30 October 2026. Learn more about it here.

‘A Moment in the Monumental: 25 Years of Art Alive’, curated by Kishore Singh, celebrates the gallery’s 25-year journey with seminal works by 30 artists spanning a century of Indian art practice. Bringing together modernists, abstractionists, sculptors and contemporary artists, the exhibition considers how individual practices remain part of a broader continuum of Indian art while developing distinct visual languages of their own.

The exhibition features artists including S.H. Raza, Krishen Khanna, Anjolie Ela Menon, Jogen Chowdhury, Sakti Burman, Paresh Maity, Jayasri Burman, Veer Munshi and The Singh Twins, among others. Highlights include Paresh Maity’s monumental Arunouday, Veer Munshi’s Maeras (Legacy) and Jayasri Burman’s Naivedya Nivedan, alongside works reflecting histories of displacement, colonialism, heritage and cultural memory. On view at Art Alive, New Delhi, from 15 October to 15 November 2026. Learn more here.

‘Under the Moon Across Many Waters’, multidisciplinary artist Arpita Akhanda’s first major solo exhibition at Emami Art, Kolkata, explores inherited memory, displacement and the enduring search for home. Drawing on family archives, photographs, documents, and oral histories, Akhanda works across paper weaving, photography, performance, drawing, video and installation to examine how memories of Partition are transmitted, reconstructed and transformed across generations.

Bringing together paper weaving, kinetic installation, and Jacquard works, the exhibition treats the body as both witness and archive, using repetition, fragmentation, and reweaving to explore what is preserved, concealed, and lost in the act of remembering. On view at Emami Art, Kolkata, from 9 October to 26 December 2026. Learn more here.

‘Intersections’, presented by Artisera in collaboration with Dhoomimal Gallery, marks Ashok Bhowmick’s first solo exhibition in Bangalore and brings together five decades of his practice. Known for his distinctive use of cross-hatching, Bhowmick’s paintings, drawings and sculptures explore the intersections between observation and imagination, figuration and abstraction, and the individual and society.

Bringing together recurring subjects including workers, coal miners, birds, animals and the human figure, the exhibition moves across periods and mediums rather than following a chronological structure. It offers a focused look at the continuities in Bhowmick’s practice, where accumulated lines become vehicles for light, shadow, memory, and human experience. ‘Intersections’ is on view at Artisera, 3rd Floor, B.K.N. Ambaram Estates, 648/L, 1st Main, Indiranagar Stage 1, Bangalore, till 5 November 2026. Learn more here.

‘Satish Gujral 100: The Modernist Returns’, curated by Pramod KG, celebrates the centenary of one of India’s significant modernists with over 100 works spanning painting, sculpture, drawing, mixed media and architecture, alongside personal archives and photographs. Conceived as an autobiographical journey, the exhibition traces Gujral’s restless experimentation across decades, geographies and disciplines, from his formative years in Mumbai (then Bombay) and experiences of Partition to his encounters with Mexico, Europe and America.

The exhibition highlights the connections between Gujral’s artistic and architectural practices, showing how ideas around form, material and space moved between painting, relief, sculpture and inhabitable structures. Returning his work to Mumbai, where his artistic journey began, The Modernist Returns offers an expansive look at a practice that consistently resisted confinement to a single medium. ‘Satish Gujral 100: The Modernist Returns’ is on view at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, from 9 October to 20 November 2026. Learn more here.

If you enjoyed reading this, here’s more from Homegrown:

Bengaluru’s First World Cyanotype Day Exhibition Is Bringing 50 Homegrown Artists Together

Illustrator Gautami Reddy On Finding Joy & Purpose In Uncertain Times

What Comes After Art School? Jaipur Centre For Art Is Making Room For The Answer