Hot List: Art Shows To Visit In December

2025 has been one of the most electric years for Indian art in recent memory. From record-breaking auctions featuring masters like M.F. Husain and Tyeb Mehta to a growing global appetite for contemporary Indian voices, the country’s artistic landscape has been buzzing with energy and ambition. What was once a relatively contained ecosystem has expanded into a thriving, dynamic network, fuelled by a surge in art fairs, new galleries, and experimental exhibition spaces cropping up across both metropolitan centres and smaller towns.

This unprecedented momentum has not only elevated Indian artists on the world stage but also transformed the experience of art for local audiences, making December an especially exciting month for enthusiasts and collectors alike.

With that said, here are some of the must-see art shows to explore across India this December:

Krishnen Khanna At 100: The Last Progressive

Where: National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai

When: Until 9 December

Marking the centenary of one of India’s most beloved modernists, The Last Progressive celebrates Krishen Khanna’s lifelong commitment to storytelling through line, colour, and the human figure. Bringing together paintings, drawings, and archival material, the exhibition traces Khanna’s journey from the halcyon days of the Progressive Artists’ Group to his later, deeply introspective works. It’s both a tribute and a rare survey, an intimate look at an artist who shaped the language of modern Indian art.

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

Where: Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai

When: Until 20 December

Known for his bold, exuberant ceramic sculptures, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran presents a new body of work that pushes the boundaries of figuration and myth-making. In this exhibition, clay, glaze, and found materials coalesce into hybrid deities, electric palettes, and forms that straddle humor and provocation. Nithiyendran’s installations challenge traditional ideas of the sacred, creating an ecstatic world where craft, pop culture, and ritual collide.

OverKill

Where: NatureMorte, Mumbai

When: Until 3 Jan 2026

OverKill by Asim Waqif’s new works merge materiality, power, and excavation, transforming architectural language into poetic forms. By reimagining “excavators” as instruments of meaning, justice, and displacement, he highlights how tools shape both creation and destruction. Manipulated through force and alteration, these pieces position viewers between knowledge, erasure, excess, and ruin.

Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art

Where: DAG, New Delhi

When: Until 30 January 2026

Now in its fifth edition, this museum-scale showcase traces the evolution of pre-modern to modern Indian art. Spanning works from 1798 to 2011, it brings together masters, National Treasure artists, influential Anglo-Indian painters, and several unidentified creators whose contributions remain vital to India’s artistic story. Rare highlights include an illustrated Bhagwat Purana scroll, Kalighat pats, and an Early Bengal masterpiece, shown alongside works by travelling artists such as Thomas Daniell, Charles D’Oyly, and Marius Bauer.

The exhibition also features history painters like Sita Ram, A. H. Muller, M. V. Dhurandhar, and L. N. Taskar; National Treasures Amrita Sher-Gil, Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore, and Nicholas Roerich; Bengal masters Radhacharan Bagchi and Ganesh Haloi; modernists including George Keyt, F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, and more. The abstractionists Shanti Dave, Sohan Qadri, and Rajendra Dhawan also feature prominently, alongside first-time inclusions in Iconic: striking works by Paramjit Singh, Amitava, and Altaf.

Shared Lives, Distinct Visions: Artist Couples In India

Where: The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai

When: Until 3 January 2026

Drawing from DAG’s collections, this wide-ranging show reveals how companionship can spark bold ideas, offer grounding critique, and form a quiet but constant force behind enduring artistic practice. This exhibition focuses on couples like Madhvi and Manu Parekh, Arpita and Paramjit Singh, Devayani and Kanwal Krishna, Gulammohammed and Nilima Sheikh, Reba and Somnath Hore, and Jyotsna and Jyoti Bhatt, whose partnerships fed their creativity in subtle, powerful ways. Their styles diverge, yet their conversations, routines, and mutual trust shaped how they worked and grew.

Nilaya Anthology: What The Land Remembers

Where: Milaaya Art Gallery

When: Until 31 December

What The Land Remembers brings together Helena Bajaj Larsen’s textiles inspired by global South geographies, Tenzing Dakpa’s photographs of Kurdi—a Goan village that resurfaces yearly and Gaia Pawar Shapiro’s dreamlike memory-scapes. Together, they explore how landscapes hold history, loss, and imagination.

Serendipity Arts Festival

Where: Panjim, Goa

When: 12-21 December

Serendipity Arts is a not-for-profit collaborative platform based in New Delhi, India, fostering empathy, curiosity and cross-cultural dialogue by supporting emerging artists across South Asia. The Foundation’s aim is to nurture artistic practice, promote research and provide sustainability and education in the field of the arts. Over the past decade, Serendipity Arts has encouraged cultural heritage projects alongside contemporary art practices with extensive residencies, grants, collaborative projects, art writing initiatives and a multi-disciplinary arts festival.

The Art of Ski(e)n: Re-membering through Performance and Thread

Where: Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi

When: 6 December - 10 January 2026

Curated by Jyoti A. Kathpalia, The Art of Ski(e)n brings together two artists, Abhijna Vemuru Kasa & Insha Manzoor (RCA alumni), whose practices delve into themes of identity, memory, lineage, culture, and the body. Through performance, thread, and material explorations, their works navigate emotional and psychological experiences shaped by personal histories and the spaces they inhabit. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how memory and tradition are carried, reinterpreted, and re-membered through the body and its gestures.