There was something on Shanay Jhaveri’s mind when he became head of visual arts at the Barbican in 2023. “I was quite surprised when I arrived that there hadn’t been a show at a major London public institution of a South Asian or Indian artist since 2016,” he says. The last had been at the Tate, and Jhaveri was determined to change that. He struck up a partnership with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi and in 2024, he curated an exhibition called The Imaginary Institution of India, which showed 150 pieces from over 30 Indian artists. Around two thirds of the work had never been exhibited in the UK. It was a hit with critics, who described it as “shocking” and “enlightening”.
This was the start of a sea change. Major exhibitions of Indian art followed at the V&A, The British Museum and the Serpentine. This Friday, a show of works by Indian sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee and her contemporaries opens at the Royal Academy. “What I hope is these things are not just a trend,” says Tarini Malik, who curated the exhibition.
