She looked unassuming at the first glance—sunshine yellow bolero (very Zara), high Victorian pleated collar cropped, crisp white blouse from Bodice (guess), a handbag that quietly whispered Celine; she was diminutive. She patiently heard me firing questions (my main game), so shyly stood by my side. After the rendezvous ended, while I was busy taking notes, she without blinking bought the Rs.15 lakh sculptural piece, from a Chennai gallery. My pencil almost dropped; she placed an order as if it was a new toy, and glided effortlessly to the next stall.

What was fascinating about the India Art Fair 2025 was not just the 120 exhibitors (78 galleries, 32 new exhibitors) showcasing outdoor installations, insightful chats with industry experts, but also how art and fashion are a match made in heaven. When I looked closely, the real “artefacts” were the audience, better dressed than any fashion week I had attended over 25 years.

There was an ocean of Goyards, Fendis, Chloe and LVs looking at masterpieces by Anish Kapoor, to Marina Abramovic (aka the grandmother of performance art), enjoying coffee exorbitantly priced (Rs 450) like the car parking (Rs 300). But that didn’t stop VIP guests from coming in droves in their batmobiles worth crores – after all, BMW was the sponsor. I went to the BMW exhibit just to step on the dance floor like, installation created by them.

Interestingly, it mirrored a night sky, brimming with stars, then as you moved, your feet lit up! I behaved like a child in a candy store, and kept moving to see how the brightness followed me.

The press release said: “‘The Future is Born of Art’ Commission winner artist-duo Nonlinear and Cursorama create an immersive installation ‘Biolume’ responding to the theme of ‘Ecocentrism’.” I don’t know what that meant for a non-art lexicon amateur, but here is what I understood.

Dennis Peter and Yash Chandak paid homage to underwater organisms, as if you were on a small boat watching the corals in the Great Barrier Reef, complete with glitchy soundscapes in a dark room.

The most well-heeled come to buy, at IAF and savour art. What caught my attention, after navigating traffic for an hour to just get into NSIC grounds, Okhla, followed by a struggle with no wifi connectivity at the fair was Amit Dutta’s ‘Kanchana Chitra Katha’, where Rama’s stories were digitised, with gods and goddesses moving on the screens.

The entire 1,000 pages were animated, and it had taken almost six months to achieve this feat. “The Book of Gold: the Kanchana Chitra Ramayana” of Banaras, has a gilded history; in between 1796 and 1814, Udit Narayan Singh, from the royal court of Banaras, had artists illustrate Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas (Kanchana Chitra Ramayana), using real gold with intriguing figures from the text. This exhibit was at the Museum of Art and Photography booth, Bengaluru. I do not know if it was good for art, that only a seasoned critic will tell you, but I noticed a 180 degree turn that it has taken —from traditional oil and watercolours to everything shifted on the screen!

‘Bond to Bachchan’

Where there is Bollywood, there are visitors. So ‘Bond to Bachchan’ by Jenny Bhatt was not just dripping with film nostalgia, but also displayed how the consumption had altered – turning digital. Jenny is from a family of legendary filmmakers. Vijay Bhatt, her grandfather, was a director, who made films such as Ram Rajya, Baiju Bawra, Goonj Uthi Shehnai, and founded Prakash Pictures in the 40s in a post-Partition India.

Jenny, on the other hand, wanted to make cinema with a pop culture twist. She is also related to Vikram Bhatt, director of Raaz and Ghulam, starring Aamir Khan and Rani Mukherji. She took two icons from Indian and global films – Amitabh Bachchan (Zanjeer to Don) and Sean Connery (Goldfinger) – and decided to pay homage through augmented reality projections. All the artworks created by her could be scanned through QR codes. “I felt art is generally elitist, I wanted to make it accessible, easy to communicate,” she smiled.

Jenny grew up on a diet of comics, loved the first generation of MAC computers, when digital animation found a way into her life in the late 80s. She is adept at technology. “I made an animation film, and ran a comic strip titled ‘Inside Out’ for six years,” she added. Her project Moksha Shots (series of multimedia artworks, including painting, sculpture, digital interactive art and comics- essentially satirical works) as the name sounds is fun. You can get moksha from anything she says — social media to a muffin!

Jains reloaded

I associated Jainism with extreme simplicity. Bordering on an obsession, the striking real gold caught my attention; the artworks were three-dimensional. They were restored, preserving the original thread, with the bullion pieces stitched back to original glory. The toughest part was to stabilise them, as the fabric had torn (they inserted fabric). The heavily embroidered 35 pieces were brought back to life. No darner was used, but expert conservationists in the display titled ‘Ancient Moderns – The Art of Jain Chhods’ by Sarita Handa archive. The magic of the finest Zardozi (I always think of bridal lehengas) was extensively used in rectangular textile in Jain shrines – commissioned, then donated to temples — they are called chhods or puthias (artisans used velvet, metal wire pure gold/silver – most were burnt to get the precious metals).

They were placed behind a Jain monk who was giving a sermon; these are from 1920 to 1934 (sequins to dabka and aari work emblazoned gives them a shine). Interestingly, they tell parables, as Garvita Sharma from Eka Archiving Services told me. Elachikumar was a royal king who fell in love with an acrobat’s daughter. His trek to final salvation was one such story depicted in bright gold.

Captain Rahul Puri, Sarita Handa’s son-in-law, spearheaded this project as he was an avid collector, who has opened his archive for the first time; he has many more in his private collection.

I found the Jain Tirthankaras and 14 dreams (refers to a series of auspicious dreams experienced by Queen Trishala, the mother of the 24th Tirthankara) on display mesmerising, with just the attention to details by the craftsmen, who wove stories in fabric. I could spot some European influences too, in the angels with wings in the middle. Just an intermingling of artistic oeuvres was a treat to view.

Art for the marginalised

The best way to explore Art Fair was not to encourage any PR to take you around; that way your view is not blinkered. My gaze fell on two women with a set of 15 kids being shown the fair. They seemed happy to interact with exhibitors—I quickly introduced myself to Meghna Chawla and Roopali Paliwal. The two former private school teachers for almost 10 years became friends, decided to work with children from the slums (Barola village in UP) who had never experienced art. They launched Art Room under the Foster and Forge Foundation, and have created a space where children from government schools, Noida, explore the world with visual arts as a medium. “We introduced Akad Bakad, a game among many others (Ludo to Snake, Tic Tac, and Ladders) made from paper mâché, as well as taught them Gond Art. Craftsmen turn educators for us. We want to expose them to art, which turns out to be therapy for them. Introverts expressed themselves openly, and children with anger issues (due to family atmosphere) found art to be calming. This initiative is 18 months old,” said Paliwal. Inter Ocean Foundation (Capt. K.C. Saigal) supported this initiative. Kudos!

I also saw for the first time visually challenged children being taken around at the Art Fair for me this was truly a change for the better.

Tarun Tahiliani’s holy dip

Tarun and his sister Tina are back from the Mahakumbh, not the first time though for the designer to have had a spiritual dip. In 2013, he did a line ‘Kumbhback’ inspired by the drapes, sunset hues and rusts, ‘rudraksh’ infused jewellery, kamandal bags, ornate kamarbandhs, to pay homage to the holy Sangam.

At the art fair, he created a ‘Tree of Life’ series, done with silk, linen, and aari threads, embellished with mother-of-pearl, hand-cut and crafted, with French knots. One piece had taken 6,000 hours to make.

You could see the first one, stormy islands, trees swaying on top of tall mountains, wind taking away some leaves with it, signifying the endless possibilities that nature held – a lesson for mankind too. Each leaf was drawn individually, cut, and then embroidered – so powerful was the attention to detail.

Last year, at the Art Fair, Tarun played with the ‘Garden of Eden’ theme, this time for the 16th edition, he added frames. In the first set of three paintings there were no human footprints; it showed harmony of birds, animals and nature, with flamingos prancing on lakes. Then came the ‘Padmatal’ or pond with lotus, and the ‘Ratna Buori’, jewelled pond (how can it not be when you have a designer, who serenaded the finest embellishment on his luxe lehengas worth lakhs bought by the wealthiest).

The ‘Cityscape’ series last one, had smaller artworks, it captured the basera, urban living, but what was the most imposing piece, was Ma Durga, 105 X 105 inches long and wide. Hand-painted, the aari, zari, and natural dyes took almost 9,000 hours to make.

Age of innocence

I did not know who Tapasya Gupta was, but what caught my attention were children, brightly painted riding in an electric blue jalopy, some playing/jumping, doing headstands with balloons; I went back to the age of innocence. Tapasya had crafted them in fibreglass, bronze and metal. I walked out thinking life was all about being free-spirited.

Sculptor, mixed media artist, Tapasya is an MBA from Institute of Planning and Management, who later studied at the Triveni Kala Sangam, and is mostly self-taught (that’s why the language of art comes through so easily). Her personal experiences were her biggest inspiration, the playfulness she added to it was central. Women form the basis of her art. ‘Why should boys have all the fun?’ she would often ask. – Asmita is the Lifestyle Editor of NRI Focus. She is an award winning journalist who has been writing on fashion for the last 32 years