Grosvenor Gallery is delighted to announce its upcoming exhibition South Asian Modern Art 2026. The exhibition will be on display at the gallery from 10 June to 4 July 2026. The exhibition brings together a group of works by artists from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the diaspora, spanning the late nineteenth century through to the contemporary period. The show includes paintings, works on paper, sculpture and textiles by some of the most important names in South Asian modernism.
Highlights of the exhibition include a collection of 3 paintings by Bengali painter Jamini Roy from the 1930s, previously belonging to Chanchalkumar Chattopadhyay (1915-2004) - a prominent left-wing poet and translator and part of the intellectual community in Calcutta at that time.
The exhibition also explores artistic exchanges between Europe and South Asia during the colonial period, featuring two nineteenth-century Bengal School oil paintings depicting scenes from Hindu mythology and devotional life. These highly unusual works combine traditional Indian narrative subjects with European techniques of perspective and oil painting, reflecting the artistic hybridity that emerged in colonial Calcutta.
Another significant work is a monumental portrait by the Danish artist Hugo Vilfred Pedersen, known in the late-19th century as The Rajah Painter, whose evocative depictions of India and Southeast Asia earned him considerable acclaim at the turn of the twentieth century. His monumental portrait Once upon a time there was an Indian Princess is believed to depict Princess Cheluvajammanni of Mysore and exemplifies the fascination with princely India that captivated European audiences of the period.
Family, a large-scape group of sculptural rag dolls by Nek Chand who was the creator of Chandigarh's famous Rock Garden. Made from materials salvaged from Chandigarh's tailors in the 1980s, these figures reflect Chand's enduring fascination with folk traditions and the transformative potential of everyday objects.
Post-war South Asian modernism is represented through significant works by members and associates of the Progressive Artists' Group, including Francis Newton Souza, Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza and K.K. Hebbar, amongst others.
These sit alongside work by George Keyt, Imran Mir, Rasheed Araeen, Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Avtarjeet Dhanjal, Mohan Samant, Syed Sadequain, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Lancelot Ribeiro, Rashid Choudhury, Prafulla Mohanti and Senaka Senanayake, amongst others.
Associated events:
During the exhibition, there will be an event to promote the recent publication ‘A Brief History of British South Asian Art’, written by Alina Khakoo and published by Tate. There will be a discussion between Alina Khakoo, Charles Moore (Grosvenor Gallery) and the curator and writer Arushi Vats.
This event will take place on Wednesday, 17 June, from 6-8pm. Copies of the book will be available to buy at the event.
