With a robust list of galleries, museums, and exhibition spaces, New Delhi has slowly etched a defining role within the South Asian art community. Within its cultural geography, the city’s art galleries have emerged as crucial institutions, supporting artists’ careers, building a rapidly growing collector base, and widening public access to art, while actively moulding the present and future of contemporary art in the subcontinent. Most notably, women founder-directors, gallerists, and curators have been at the forefront of these developments. Here are ten women-led art galleries in New Delhi that are shaping this moment in South Asian art.
In 1987, Vadehra Art Gallery was the first gallery to call Defence Colony its home. Founded by Arun Vadehra, it was one of the earliest pioneers of modern Indian art, supporting masters including M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Tyeb Mehta, and Arpita Singh. Now spread across two spaces for modern and contemporary South Asian art, the gallery is led by co-directors Roshini Vadehra and Parul Vadehra. Aiming beyond global visibility, the duo also co-founded the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in 2007. Through exhibitions, events, and a growing digital presence, they strive to inculcate deeper engagements between artists and the public.
While the Indian art market was still in its infancy, the prescient Renu Modi founded Gallery Espace in 1989 at the encouragement of M.F. Husain, who also designed their galloping horse logo. The gallery also debuted with Husain’s autobiographical watercolours. Gallery Espace has since worked with several generations of artists, from the Bombay Progressives to contemporary favourites. Modi was also the first gallerist to celebrate Indian pop art with her landmark exhibition Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai in 2001. Three decades later, the gallery continues to be rooted in her old school values while also supporting younger artists and their new practices.
First operating in New York from 1982-1988, Nature Morte was brought to New Delhi by co-founder Peter Nagy in 1997. Today, with two exhibition spaces at the Dhan Mill complex in Chhattarpur and Vasant Vihar, gallery-Director Aparajita Jain leads with her interest in the intimate interplay of the personal and the global in artists’ works. While themes of identity, environment, and technology bring artists together, Nature Morte has also been a champion of experimental art forms. With a strong global presence, the gallery’s artists have been exhibited and acquired across the world by individuals and prestigious institutions alike.
Mythology, philosophy, and contemporary realities comprise the principal axes along which Threshold Art Gallery has been uniting artists since 1997. Founded by Tunty Chauhan, the gallery has been supporting early and mid-career artists for almost thirty years now. As a curator herself, Chauhan focus lies on dialogue and documentation, sharpened with a keen sense of rigour and sensitivity. From June 4 to October 4, 2026, Threshold Art Gallery, in collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia, is hosting a contemporary Indian art exhibition for the first time in the latter’s monumental 260-year-old history.
Formerly Anant Art Gallery from 2004-2009, Founder-Director Mamta Singhania relaunched it as Anant Art in 2017. At its core, Anant Art has always been driven by the vision to support innovative artistic practices and facilitate cross-border dialogues. In both phases, Singhania has collaborated with an impressive roster of artists, including Himmat Shah, Imran Qureshi, Valsan Kolleri, and Raqs Media Collective. Additionally, its artists such as Vikrant Bhise, Dhara Mehrotra, and Gulammohammed Sheikh have achieved international acclaim at several institutions.
Anahita Taneja and Shefali Somani co-founded Shrine Empire in 2008 in Defence Colony. After almost two decades, they moved into a much larger space in the same neighbourhood in April 2026. Across time and space, Taneja and Somani have remained firm in their resolve to promote South Asian artists who pay close attention to research and process, approaching both media and material conceptually. Shrine Empire has also organised outreach programmes to support alternative practices as a further exploration of the interactions between aesthetics and socio-political contexts.
In 2009, Rasika Kajaria set up Exhibit 320 to bring together diverse voices from India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, bridging conversations between traditional and contemporary thought. Kajaria’s vision was not just to offer a space for display and participation, but also to provoke and challenge both artists and audiences. Over the years, the gallery has worked with artists such as Richa Arya, Riya Chandwani, Purvai Rai, and Anju Dodiya. Exhibit 320 has also established a strong international presence, with artist Sumakshi Singh’s work currently on display at the Indian Pavillion, Venice Biennale 2026.
Founder-Director Bhavna Kakar established Latitude 28 in 2010 at Lado Sarai. With an emphasis on mentorship, Kakar has been a champion of experimental material-based practices. In November 2025, Latitude 28 inaugurated its second space in Defence Colony, which has quickly become the city’s hottest art district. The gallery strives to offer a platform for site-specific artworks, talks, and immersive curatorial experiences that synthesise art with South Asian history and socio-political narratives. Kakar is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TAKE on Art, a bi-annual contemporary art publication that fosters dialogue among artists, critics, writers, and curators.
Co-founders Mandira Lamba and Ridhi Bhalla started Blueprint.12 in 2012 to bridge the gap between emerging South Asian artists and collectors. Starting out as a nomadic gallery, the institution has now found a home in Anand Niketan. With a small selection of artists, Lamba and Bhalla have been early supporters of artistic experiments, platforming homegrown and diasporic artists who are constantly pushing boundaries. Their impressive roster includes Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai, Kamurai, Mansa Chhatwal from India, Youdhisthir Maharjan from Nepal, Mahbubur Rahman from Bangladesh, and Sri Lankan artist Kingsley Gunatillake.
From 1997-2003, Ranjana Steinruecke ran a gallery in Berlin, introducing Indian art to the German capital, including a coterie of renowned names like Bhupen Khakhar, Jogen Chowdhury, and Atul Dodiya. Later, Steinruecke joined her mother, Usha Mirchandani, to establish Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Mumbai in 2006; in 2024, a second gallery was instituted in New Delhi. In India, the mother-daughter duo were driven by a singular impulse: to only platform younger Indian artists. They have since nurtured over twenty artists, including Gieve Patel, C.K. Rajan, Gauri Gill and Sosa Joseph.