Attend A Mumbai Art Exhibition Tracing 25 Years Of Indian Contemporary Art

When Tao Art Gallery first opened its doors in Mumbai in 2000, it did so with a deceptively simple tagline: “the way to art”. For founder Kalpana Shah, herself an artist, the gallery was less a commercial venture and more a personal passion project — a way of surrounding herself with the creative energy she admired and appreciated. Twenty-five years later, the gallery has evolved into one of India’s most respected contemporary art spaces, and its anniversary exhibition, Gateways and Pathways, staged at the historic Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda art district, attempts to both celebrate that journey and interrogate the evolving landscape of Indian art.

Since its inception, Tao has positioned itself as a gateway to India’s post-modernist and contemporary art canon, while also creating pathways for emerging practitioners. Over six decades of Indian modern and contemporary art history converge in this exhibition, curated by poet-critic Ranjit Hoskote, which features more than fifty artists: some long-standing associates of the gallery, others occasional collaborators.

In his curatorial approach, Mr Hoskote refuses to draw strict lines between past and future. Senior modernists appear in experimental modes alongside young practitioners — openly in conversation with each other, collapsing hierarchies and revealing surprising connections.

This pluralism reflects a broader shift in India’s art world that began in the late 1990s. The era of singular “masters” gave way to a more decentralised field where painters, sculptors, photographers, performance artists, and multimedia experimenters operate in parallel. Many straddle the borders of popular culture, activism, and subcultures, bringing into fine art’s ambit everything from street graffiti to digital ephemera. As Mr Hoskote notes, galleries like Tao have had to adapt to these changes in society and aesthetics, becoming not just spaces of display but also hubs of dialogue, refuge, and renewal.

The exhibition arrives at a moment when Indian contemporary art is negotiating new thresholds. The neat binaries of “Modern” and “Contemporary” are dissolving; medium-specific categories, such as painting or sculpture, no longer suffice in a world where performance, installation, and digital experimentation mix and co-exist in flux. For artists, enthusiasts, gallerists, and collectors alike, this can be both exhilarating and disorienting. But as Gateways and Pathways suggests, the future of Indian art lies in embracing ambiguity and multiplicity.

In her own reflection, Sanjana Shah, founder Kalpana Shah's daughter and the current Creative Director of Tao, describes the gallery’s history as an inheritance of resilience. The 2008 financial crisis and the personal tragedy of losing her father, Pankaj Shah, in the 26/11 terror attacks could easily have derailed the gallery. Instead, Tao persisted, re-shaped by what Sanjana calls her mother’s “rare breed of mental resilience”. Today, she regards Tao as an “oasis” — not an escape from reality but a refuge within it — a place where art’s potential to heal, provoke, and inspire is given free rein.

Gateways and Pathways is on view from September 23 to September 29, 2025, at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda. The exhibition will continue at the Tao Art Gallery, Worli, through October.

Learn more about the exhibition here.

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