Her time to shine

Indian women artists dazzle at Art Dubai 2025

- BY NEETA LAL

Indian creatives captivated viewers at Art Dubai 2025, the Middle East and North African (MENA) region's foremost art fair that ran from April 18 to 20, representing over 400 artists from 65 countries.

Blue-chip Indian galleries showcased works of around 30 artists at the fair's contemporary, modern and Bawwaba (gateway in Arabic) sections. From marquee names like M.F. Husain to influential millennial voices, the works transcended generations and genres, reinforcing India's position as both a cultural powerhouse and a rising star on the global art firmament.

However, it was the women artists who shone brightest with their strongest showing yet since the fair's launch in 2007. Artists like Dhara Mehrotra, Sheetal Gattani, Anindita Bhattacharya, Shruti Mahajan, Pallavi Paul, Sudipta Das, Gopa Trivedi, Ketaki Sarpotdar, Purvai Rai and Bhasha Chakrabarti spotlighted themes as diverse as climate change, identity politics, migration and empowerment.

Mumbai-based gallery Chemould Prescott Road brought works of four boundary-pushing women artists—Archana Hande, Dana Awartani, Lavanya Mani and Mithu Sen—all of whom are reimagining histories, geographies and societal constructs using social satire and sharp political undertones in their works. Sen, known for her conceptual and interactive formats, explored societal hierarchies and identities in her work 'Pray-Prey (to kneel in hope, or be confined)'.

Captivating canvasses

Shrine Empire, New Delhi, presented Divya Singh, a multimedia artist whose practice draws from a groundswell of painting techniques, photography, writing, cinema and art books, and a lyrical engagement with themes of memory, time and mortality.