South Asian Art Gains Global Momentum Through Private Initiatives and Biennials

Kiran Nadar, founder of India's first private art museum, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, notes increased acceptance for South Asian art despite historical challenges. She compares the region's trajectory to China's post-2008 market recovery. Nadar appears on the 2017 Power 100 list, having hosted exhibitions for modernists M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, and S.H. Raza at KNMA's New Delhi and Noida venues. Her international influence extends to co-producing and loaning works for Documenta and supporting Nalini Malani's retrospective at Centre Pompidou in Paris. She also backed Jayashree Chakravaty's exhibition at Musee Guimet. The Raqs Media Collective members Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta held 11 solo shows globally, including their first major UK exhibition at Manchester's Whitworth Museum. In Kerala, artists Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari organized the third Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which concluded in March 2017 with 97 artists from 31 countries under guest curator Sudarshan Shetty. Komu is developing URU Art Harbour in Kochi as a contemporary art hub. Bangladeshi collectors Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani are preparing the fourth Dhaka Art Summit for February 2018, featuring the Samdani Art Award, and planning an art centre and sculpture park in Sylhet. South Asia had four entries on the 2017 Power 100 list, one more than the previous year.