The 16th edition of India Art Fair ushers in an exciting Parallel Programme in New Delhi, India, with some of the country's prominent galleries and institutions exhibiting a compelling selection of contemporary practices. 2025 also marks the fourth year of India Art Fair's (IAF) platform to empower budding art collectors, Young Collectors’ Programme (YCP), which is presenting work at various spaces in Delhi, including the STIR gallery. Going beyond IAF 2025, Delhi also sees several institutions present shows that are not officially linked to the fair but are equally captivating and present an invaluable opportunity for art lovers to enrich their fair experience.

Vadehra Art Gallery is presenting Shilpa Gupta: Beyond Borders at Bikaner House from February 2 – 14, focusing on sculpture art by Shilpa Gupta, who is based in Mumbai. The exhibition brings together around 20 works by Gupta that explore the theme of borders, both physical and conceptual, and how they are resisted. Gupta’s work treads topics ranging from the struggle for personal freedoms to the hegemonic structures that define our world and has garnered her acclaim abroad through exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and the Barbican Centre, London, in 2021. Some of her works in the show are being exhibited for the first time in India.

Opening alongside India Art Fair 2025, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is presenting Of Worlds Within Worlds: Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, A Retrospective, from February 5 – June 30, 2025. The show is curated by Roobina Karode, director and chief curator, KNMA. With over 100 works in total from the KNMA collection and on loan from private institutions and collections, Of Worlds Within Worlds promises to be the most comprehensive presentation of the esteemed Indian modernist’s interdisciplinary work to date.

Sheikh blends reality, imagination, history and mythology to construct vibrant worlds that echo India’s transformations, throughout his 65-year-long career. The show treats audiences to a large offering of archival material and charts out the evolution of his practice across painting, drawing, poetry, printmaking and more.

Nature Morte is showing Polyphony, the debut Indian solo exhibition by Indian-born textile artist Sagarika Sundaram, who is based in New York. The show presents large-scale textile-based sculptures and is on view until February 23, 2025.

Sundaram’s primary material is felt, which she makes from wool, dyeing it herself before fashioning it into sculptures. She works improvisationally, using threads of several different colours to create each piece of large-scale art. The artist then cuts away sections to reveal mesmerising details that appear to ebb and flow and connect, at times, to musical movements.

Polyphony explores this connection, developing poetics between music and abstraction through Sundaram’s work. In keeping with the show's title, which denotes a state of multiple overlapping musical compositions, there is a sense of energetic chaos in the artist’s vivid threadwork that makes for a captivating viewing experience.

Anant Art Gallery is showing Probir Gupta: Migrants in the Museum, which treats audiences to works of the Indian artist and activist. The show is from February 1 – 11, 2025, at Travancore House, with a preview on January 31. The show brings together Gupta’s social art, blending paintings, cutouts, photographs and more.

The artist draws from a multitude of sources, including history, contemporary politics, mythology and more, to grapple with the pressing issues of our day, such as the dangers of unchecked capitalism, communal marginalisation and social injustice. Migrants at the Museum particularly seeks to confront audiences with Gupta’s portrayal of displacement through the artist’s chaotically layered canvases.

Delhi’s Alkazi Theatre Archives and Alkazi Collection of Photography is presenting Staging the 1990s (Delhi) from February 1 – 10, 2025 at Triveni Kala Sangam. The show aims to use photographs of architectural and theatrical models as a way to explore the major events that shaped 1990s India, such as the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and the 1996 bomb blasts in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi, which resulted in the deaths of 13 civilians.

The exhibition suggests that the model is an instrument that does not lose relevance after its primary purpose is fulfilled and that by studying its historical context, we can better understand our contemporary moment.

Shrine Empire is presenting Shadows in the Sky, which is on from February 4 – March 11, 2025. The solo exhibition of Bangladeshi photographer Sarkar Protick presents images from his neighbourhood in Dhaka that capture recurring events such as crows alighting from neighbouring buildings into the sky and the daily activities of the photographer’s mother.

The exhibition contrasts the comfort the photographer finds in his mother’s home with the alienation he feels at Dhaka’s expansion, particularly at the many infrastructural development projects that are left unfinished (which the show connects to the megacities of the wider Global South).

Thukral & Tagra and independent curator Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi have organised the second edition of the Sustaina initiative from February 2 – 16, 2025, at the STIR Art Gallery. Titled Sustaina Edition 2: With each seed we sing, the exhibition presents works by three Sustaina fellows: materials expert Shubhi Sachan, who founded the Material Library of India; grassroots agrarian organiser Saraswathi Malluvalasa, who founded Arogya Millet Sisters; and Poludas Nagendra Satish of Kora Design Collaborative, who works to restore India’s traditional cotton sector.

The exhibition also includes several other artists, such as the members of collectives Chander Haat and Edible Issues, and features work across mediums, including film, installation art, drawings and more.

As part of YCP, Method Gallery, New Delhi exhibits Fresh Produce 2025 from January 31 – February 9, 2025. The show is organised by curator, archaeologist and art historian Anica Mann and brings together works from over 30 artists, such as Karan Khosla, Avinda Tishan, Ravi Morya and more.

While the show’s provocative titling may raise questions about the commodification of art, Method’s primary motivation with Fresh Produce is to present audiences with an eclectic mix of artworks across mediums and from young practices, asserting itself as a bold new space in the city for artistic experimentation.

These are some of the ongoing and upcoming exhibitions in Delhi that we are looking forward to exploring during the art fair. With so much happening, early February promises to be an exciting time in India’s vibrant capital and should see a large footfall of art lovers looking to take in the breadth of the nation’s contemporary art scene.

India Art Fair 2025 brings an exciting programme of exhibitions, talks and public programming to New Delhi, introducing audiences to a wide range of artists and practices. Follow STIR's insightful coverage of the fair here.

India Art Fair 2025 is on from February 6 – 9, 2025, at NSIC Exhibition Grounds in Okhla, New Delhi.