Royal Academy of Arts to present landmark South Asian art exhibition opening October 2025

This autumn, the Royal Academy of Arts will present A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle (31 October 2025 – 24 February 2026), a landmark exhibition celebrating the life, work and legacy of one of India’s most pioneering artists. Bringing together approximately 100 works spanning over a century, the show will situate Mukherjee’s practice within a wider constellation of artists, mentors, friends and family who influenced her development and, in turn, helped shape the course of modern and contemporary South Asian art. Sculpture, painting, textiles, ceramics, printmaking and drawing will be displayed together, offering audiences a rare chance to explore the rich networks of creativity that flourished across the subcontinent during the twentieth century.

Mrinalini Mukherjee and works in progress at her garage studio. New Friends Colony, New Delhi, c.1985. Courtesy of Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation and Asia Art Archive. Photo: Ranjit Singh

The exhibition traces connections between Mukherjee’s artistic journey and the formative role of key institutions in South Asia. It highlights Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan, established in 1919 by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and the Faculty of Fine Arts at Baroda, both of which were centres of experimentation and dialogue that nurtured generations of artists. Organised both thematically and chronologically, each gallery will be dedicated to a place of significance for Mukherjee and her peers, Santiniketan, Baroda and New Delhi’s Garhi Studios, demonstrating how these cultural environments inspired some of the most innovative art of the period.

Benode Behari Mukherjee, Lady with Fruit, 1957. Paper and graphite on paper, 25.7 x 28 cm. Tate: Purchased with funds provided by the South Asia Acquisitions Committee 2015. Photo: © Tate. Courtesy of Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation

Mukherjee became internationally recognised for her bold fibre sculptures, created using macramé techniques to form monumental soft structures that conveyed a striking sense of presence. Later, she explored ceramic and bronze with the same intuitive approach, producing organic forms that merged abstraction with figuration while drawing from nature, ancient Indian sculpture and modernist design. This exhibition places her alongside her parents, Leela Mukherjee and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Leela’s watercolours, etchings and sculptures, and Benode Behari’s works, including the rediscovered scroll Scenes from Santiniketan, will be displayed outside India for the first time, underlining the artistic legacy of this remarkable family.

Mrinalini Mukherjee, Jauba, 2000. Hemp fibre and steel, 143 x 133 x 110 cm approx. Tate: Presented by Amrita Jhaveri 2013. Photo: © Tate. Courtesy of Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation.

The presentation also brings together works by figures who influenced, collaborated with, or worked alongside Mukherjee. These include KG Subramanyan, whose teaching shaped a generation of artists, Jagdish Swaminathan, whose paintings reflected on indigenous iconography, and Nilima Sheikh, whose major painted scroll series SongSpace will be reunited after three decades. Gulammohammed Sheikh’s politically charged yet lyrical paintings, alongside recent works by both Sheikhs from 2024, demonstrate the continued resonance of these artistic dialogues. Curated by Tarini Malik with Rebecca Bray, and organised with The Hepworth Wakefield, A Story of South Asian Art offers an unprecedented exploration of the creative relationships that helped define Indian modernism and their impact on contemporary art today.

Date: 31 October 2025 – 24 February 2026. Location: The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD. Price: From £17; concessions available; under 16s free; Friends of the RA free. 25 & Under: half-price tickets for 16–25 year olds (T&Cs apply). Book now