New Delhi’s India Art Fair will expand to Mumbai in 2025

India Art Fair event, with a focus on contemporary art and design., will coincide with the existing fair Art Mumbai in November 2025

South Asia’s largest commercial art event, the India Art Fair (IAF) in New Delhi, will launch an offshoot next year in Mumbai. Named the India Art Fair Contemporary (IAFC), the expo will gather between 50 and 70 galleries, mostly from India, in Mumbai’s Jio World Garden between 13-16 November 2025.

India Art Fair is the biggest fair of modern and contemporary Indian art in the world. Its first three editions attracted over 146,000 visitors and its fourth edition held in 2012 canvassed 91 exhibitors from 20 countries. Over the years the fair has mainly showcased Indian modernists (including Bombay Progressive Artists' Group), Indian diaspora artists such as Anish Kapoor, contemporary Indian artists, international artists and art from the subcontinent.

Installations at India Art Fair 2018

Following in the tradition of international art fairs and other global platforms for art exhibition and sale, then Founder and Director of India Art Summit Sunil Gautam realised the need for a similar platform in India to respond to the global interest in Indian art. This led him to conceptualize the first ever India Art Summit (IAS) in 2008. It was patronised by prominent Indian artists like Anjolie Ela Menon, S H Raza, Krishen Khanna and Keshav Malik. Since then it has taken place every year with the exception of 2010. Sunil Gautam, the owner of the India Art Summit fully divested his 100% stake in early 2011 to three stakeholders, Neha Kirpal (51%), Sandy Angus(35%) and Will Ramsay (14%), co-founders of the Hong Kong Art Fair. In 2009 the highlight of the fair was a display of Pablo Picasso's works, exhibited by Beck & Eggeling, a German gallery. The same year Lisson Gallery brought diaspora artist Anish Kapoor's sculptures to India for the first time.The New owners renamed India Art Summit as India Art Fair before 2012 edition.

In Sept 2016, just before 2017 edition of India Art Fair, Neha Kirpal divested her majority stake in the India Art Fair to MCH Group, the owner of Art Basel Franchise, retaining just 10% stake to play minor role in the art fair. At the same time Will Ramsay too divested his stake in the India Art Fair to new owners MCH Group(60.3%), Sandy Angus (29.7%) and Neha Kirpal(10%). Later MCH Group, Swiss giant in the art fair circuit, sold its entire stake in India Art Fair (IAF) to Angus Montgomery Arts in 2019, making Sandy Angus the sole-owner of the India Art Fair, New Delhi. The current portfolio of Chairman Sandy Angus led Angus Montgomery Arts includes Taipei Dangdai, India Art Fair, Sydney Contemporary, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, Art Central Hong Kong, Art Düsseldorf, Photo London and the forthcoming Art SG, Tokyo Gendai  and PHOTOFAIRS New York.

References

1.  Jha, Srishti (22 August 2009). "Indian Art Summit 2009: An 'arty' delight". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 23 November 2010.
2.  "2nd Indian Art Summit to have more international participation". Deccan Herald. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011.
3.  Karan, Fatima (25 January 2011). "Husain's work removed from India Art Summit". IBN Live. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011.
4.  "Soon, art haat in India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 August 2013.
5.  "New Delhi's India Art Fair explodes this year". CNN. 19 January 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
6.  "The big draws at the India Art Summit". Wall Street Journal. 21 January 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
7.  "1,000 artists, 20 countries - India Art Fair cometh". Zee News. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
8.  "Get ready for a close brush with World Art". The Times of India. 19 August 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
9.  “[1]”,  The company Album
10.  Jan Dalley, “Full speed ahead at Indian Art Summit”, The Financial Times, 28 Jan 2011
11.  John Elliot, “A change is gonna come”, The Economist, 31 Jan 2012
12.  Shoba Narayan, “Indian art market a rosy picture”, The National, 23 Jan 2012
13.  Gayatri Rangachari Shah, “Highlights of the India Art Fair”, The New York Times, 01 Feb 2013
14.  Gayatri Rangachari Shah, “6th India Art Fair reports strong sales”, The New York Times, 04 Feb 2014
15.  "India's 'missing' women cast shadow over national art fair". The Guardian. AFP. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
16.  Kunal Doley, “Shades of Money”, The Financial Express, 08 Feb 2015
17.  Nasdaq, “Media Release | MCH Group | Co-ownership stake in India Art Fair” GlobeNewswire, 12 September 2016
18.  Anny Shaw, “Art Basel’s owner takes majority stake in India Art Fair”, The Art Newspaper, 12 September 2016
19.  Elizabeth Kuruvilla, “Art Basel parent company co-owns India Art Fair”, Live Mint, 13 September 2016
20.  Shaw, Anny "India Art Fair gets new director for tenth edition", [The Art Newspaper], London 18 August 2017. Retrieved on 22 August 2017. 
21.  Vandana Kalra "India Art Fair gets new director for fourteenth edition", [The Indian Express], New Delhi 26 March 2021. Retrieved on 16 July 2022.