The Exhibitions Worth Leaving the House For Right Now

There's a particular quality to a good gallery in July. The rain outside, the cool inside, an hour with no agenda other than looking at something carefully. No phone, no plan, just the pleasure of being somewhere that asks something of you without demanding too much. It's the kind of afternoon that's hard to justify when the weather is good and easy to forget exists when it isn't.

The Mumbai and Delhi art calendar this season is worth paying attention to. There's a Superblue debut that is the most ambitious experiential show this city has seen, a TARQ exhibition that gives you a reason to go to Fort on a Tuesday, and two Delhi shows in the same neighbourhood you can do back to back without rushing either. The range is wider than usual: immersive and intimate, established names and open calls, the kind of work that stays with you and the kind you'll want to take home. Here's where to go.

Second Nature @NMACC, Mumbai
Open until January 10, 2027 

Nine large-scale immersive installations across all four floors of the Art House, works by Random International, teamLab, A.A. Murakami, Simon Heijdens, and Es Devlin, none of whom have ever been shown in India before. Superblue's Asia debut and the most ambitious experiential art show this city has seen. The Es Devlin piece alone is worth the visit: a monumental screen constructed from 365 physical sketchbooks documenting 25 years of her process, where visitors are invited to take a page home at the end, gradually dismantling the installation itself. You have until January, which means there's no urgency, which also means you'll keep putting it off. Don't. 

Ephemeral @Art Musings, Mumbai
Open until July 31 

Artists Ajay Dhandre and Krishnendu Porel in conversation about dreamlike landscapes alongside man-machine narratives, together reflecting on memory, time, and what it means to be human. This is the kind of two-person show where the contrast does more work than any single artist could alone. Closes at the end of the month. This one actually has a deadline.  

Contextures: RMA and The Practice of Embedded Architecture @TARQ, Fort, Mumbai Open until August 21 

At TARQ, one of the best gallery spaces in the country, inside a beautiful Fort building, the architecture of the space is always part of the experience. A show about embedded architecture feels especially right here. Worth going for the gallery alone if you haven't been lately, and the show gives you a reason to go now rather than eventually. 

Holiday Homework @Method, Defence Colony, Delhi
Open until August 23 

Organised by LOAM and supported by the Ardee Foundation, the show gathers eighteen artists around a single question: what might childhood look like once industrial design and global manufacturing no longer shape it? The participating artists revisit themes of play, pedagogy and memory. And the result? An exhibition that feels both investigative and hopeful. Method is one of the most interesting gallery spaces in Delhi right now, and this is the kind of show that rewards actually spending time in it rather than walking through. 

Paper and Play @Gallery XXL, Defence Colony, Delhi
Open until August 22 

Part exhibition, part hangout, part participatory environment,  bringing together prints, posters, works on paper, books, games, zines, toys, and artist books, with the deliberate curatorial intention of reframing the gallery not as a site of intimidation or exclusivity, but as a hospitable point of entry. Works include collectables by anonymous street artist Daku, political posters by Priyanka Paul, and urban mark-making by Indian artists DO, ZERO, and Khatra. Alongside zines, artist books, and things you'll actually want to take home. The most accessible show on this list, in the best sense of that word. Worth an afternoon.