- HOMEGROWN WORLD
- #HGCREATORS
- #HGEXPLORE
- #HGVOICES
- #HGSHOP
- CAREERS
- ABOUT US
- CONTACT US
House of Santal, a New York-based gallery founded by Raksha Sanikam, is spotlighting contemporary South Asian collectable design through furniture, sculptural objects, and craft traditions reimagined for a global audience.
South Asian craftsmanship exists in a world of irony. For decades, it has been admired and widely referenced in global design while rarely being credited on its own terms. South Asian artisans have shaped luxury interiors, fashion, textiles, and furniture across the world, and yet they have remained anonymous behind European and American brands that built entire aesthetic vocabularies around the subcontinent’s craft and material traditions. House of Santal, a new design gallery and online platform based in New York, wants to shift that narrative.
Founded by designer and curator Raksha Sanikam, House of Santal is a contemporary design gallery and online platform focused on South Asian collectables. Launched earlier this year with an inaugural exhibition at Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, the gallery highlights furniture, sculptural works, mirrors, rugs, and collectable objects by 13 Indian designers and studios that blend heritage craft with modern form.
The inaugural exhibition, ‘At the Threshold of the Courtyard’, drew inspiration from the central courtyards of traditional Indian homes, known as ‘aangan’ or ‘nadumuttam’. The gallery is designed around this concept, creating intimate vignettes that invite visitors to slow down and engage thoughtfully with the objects on display. The featured designers include Design ni Dukaan, Arisaa, Sage Living, Karan Desai, and AMH by Pallavi Goenka — all of whom reinterpret traditional techniques through contemporary sculptural and experimental forms.
House of Santal launched as South Asian culture in America is undergoing a significant transformation. What was once exoticised in the West as ‘ethnic’ is now defined by authorship, lineage, and craft heritage. House of Santal supports this shift by positioning South Asian craft traditions at the centre of global design. The gallery’s name comes from ‘santalum’ — Latin for sandalwood — a material central to South Asian ritual, architecture, and artisanal history. This focus on provenance and cultural memory guides the platform’s curatorial approach, highlighting the stories, labour, and inherited knowledge behind each object.
House of Santal also addresses a broader gap within American cultural institutions. Although South Asian aesthetics have circulated globally through textiles, decorative arts, and architecture, contemporary South Asian designers remain under-represented in museums, galleries, and design fairs outside the region. By establishing a dedicated platform in New York, one of the world’s leading cultural capitals, House of Santal seeks to present South Asian design as a living, evolving contemporary cultural current rather than a tradition fixed in the past.
Follow @houseofsantal on Instagram.
