Hot List: Art Shows To Go For In January 2026
Check out the unmissable art exhibitions happening in Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi and Mumbai
The first month of the year can carry a bag of blues with it. But you can swerve January's bleaker days by filling colours and by indulging in a healthy dose of inspiration from culture and art to make January not so dull and monotonous.
With many art exhibitions making their way up on the calendar, these art exhibitions on display in January will give you enough reasons to step out of the blues, save dates, make plans and enjoy the start of the year like you are supposed to.
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Here are 7 art shows and exhibitions you mustn't miss this month:
Dream Visions by Nikas Safronov
Where: National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
When: Until 15 Jan
Dream Visions is a multimedia exhibition that blends realism and imagination by renowned Russian artist who is showcasing a series of works inspired by Indian culture, history and mythology with elements of artificial intelligence. This exhibition "Dream Vision" is dedicated to strengthening the friendship between Russia and India, and the cultural dialogue connecting these two countries.
Amphibian Aesthetics
Where: Kashi Hallegua House, Kochi
When: Until 31 March
The exhibition, Amphibian Aesthetics, put together by Ishara Art Foundation and Aazhi Archives,is a panoramic view of a rich melange of practices with the impressive Kashi Hallegua House as its temporary home. The inaugural exhibition brings together 12 artists and collectives who play with the emerging precarities in the Anthropocene. The exhibition explores the aspect of 'amphibian' as an artful way of mediating migrations and exile, memory and history, traditions and identities across time and space. New artistic commissions examine how migration has historically facilitated complex confluences, underlining the role of maritime exchange in shaping society, power and resistance in our interconnected, ever evolving world.
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Divine Manifestation
Where: Black Cube, New Delhi
When: Until 22 January
The solo exhibition by Meena Sansanwal presented by Black Cube showcases the Sansanwal's artistic universe as an intricate cosmology where the female form, divinity, and the fantastical come together through paintings, paiper-mache sculptures, and mixed-media works created over nearly a decade.
Lone Runner’s Laboratory
Where: Experiementer, Colaba, Mumbai
When: Jan 8- 21 Feb
Prabhakar Pachpute’s Lone Runner's Laboratory weaves through a dense interplay of metaphors and contemporary references, marking a new chapter in his evolving thinking by presenting both social and psychological readings of individual quest and systemic abuse. The exhibition unfolds as an active space of introspection—confronting with discomforting encounters, stark silence, and propositions of hope.
Bloom at Dusk
Where: Ojas Art, New Delhi
When: Jan 23- March 11
An exhibition by Padma Shri awardee Jodhaiya Bai Baiga, Bloom at Dusk conjure, a world shaped by sacred imagery, Baiga cosmology, and the forests of her childhood. Her works pulse with divine beings, ancestral spirits, human figures, ritual dancers, and forest creatures, all woven into a living, mythic tapestry. The sacred mahua tree, Lord Bholenath, and Baghesur, the tiger god, appear as recurring motifs that reflect her deep connection to the land and its spiritual ecology.
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The Line Is Time
Where: Experimenter, Kolkata
When: Until 31 Jan
The Line is Time, artsit Radhika Khimji’s third solo with the gallery, that brings together a new and introspective body of painting and installation.She approaches time as a subjective experience, measured by our internal time-consciousness, to think of temporality and fleeting moments that recognise an intuitive emotion as opposed to a reactive action. Her works fundamentally challenge the perception of time and respond to interior circadian rhythms.
Spacescapes
Where: Alliance Française Gallery, New Delhi
When: 29 January - 14 February
A solo exhibition by artist Sujata Bajaj after 16 years in Delhi, SPACESCAPES marks the culmination of more than five years of exploration into images captured by the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. Translating the enormity of the universe into abstraction, Sujata creates works that vibrate with elemental energy - radiant bursts of light, drifting nebulae, and cosmic matter in states of formation and dissolution. The curator of the exhibition is Tuba Ali, Curator at Alliance Française de Delhi, who oversees curatorial direction and exhibition development across contemporary and modern visual arts.