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In every thought-piece about Delhi, it’s established that the city’s haunted by memory and missing histories. Ahead of the winter – which is prime time to fixate on and remember what used to be – the capital’s art galleries are already capitalising on this. Across Delhi’s white cubes this month, five shows stand out in perhaps an unplanned theme together. From borderlands that rewrite our internal geographies to domestic shadows pinned to post-colonial memory, these exhibitions ask how the histories we carry remains after the gallery doors close.
If you find yourself wandering the capital with a desire to slow down, here are five exhibitions in Delhi chosen for exactly this purpose, across Safdarjung, Mehrauli, Defence Colony, Anand Niketan and NGMA.
Phantasms | Anant Art Gallery, Safdarjung
This solo show by Thamshangpha ‘Merci’ Maku’ was curated by Anna Sireiliu Charenamei and Sohorpem Kazingmei with Shaleen Wadhwana acting as curatorial advisor. Through the artist’s understanding of literature, community, and forests, the show promises to grapple with how homesickness haunts someone ‘born into the margins of the nation state’; how this someone’s history is both invisibilised and weaponised. Maku understands the borderland as both physical and something that messes with what he calls an ‘interior order’. Anant Art Gallery's one of the city's most underrated galleries, if you ask me, with their curatorial strengths lying equally in the surreal and political.
Where: Anant Art, B-5/3, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi
When: September 10-October 31. Open Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm.
Nearest metro station: Bhikaji Cama on the yellow line
Entry: Free
Three Spaces | OJAS Art, Mehrauli
Artist Mayank Singh Shyam explores three interconnected realms: paatal (netherworld), dharti (earth), and aakash (sky). It draws from the mythology, cosmology, and stories of the Pardhan Gond tradition. While rooted in the visual heritage of Jangarh Kalam – pioneered by his father, Jangarh Singh Shyam – Mayank’s Mitti series moves between the urban and the rural in its subjects, incorporating traditional community clay and natural leaf-derived pigments alongside canvas works. At the centre of the show still is Nan-Jan Vriksh, a tribute to his parents. OJAS Art, incidentally, is located in the same complex as Zetu, Delhi's first Sri Lankan restaurant.
Where: OJAS Art, 1AQ, near Qutab Minar, Mehrauli, New Delhi
When: September 3-October 1. Open Tues-Sun, 11am-7pm.
Nearest metro station: Qutub Minar station on the yellow line
Entry: Free
Sounds from the Attic | Shrine Empire, Defence Colony
Artist Divya Singh creates a dream-like world of memory, ghosts, and loss. Decidedly pinned on Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology (how the present is continually haunted by the spectral presence of the past), Singh's paintings feature atmospheric interiors, soft light through windowpanes, cups, floating figures, candle flames. While I most enjoy the faceless ones – they almost feel like snatches of much-lost domestic quiet – she also blends digital archives and personal history, marshaling screenshots from cinema (such as Víctor Erice’s 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive) alongside family photographs. Curated with text by Meera Menezes, the works explore ideas of mortality, longing, and how alternative futures are shaped by historical shifts. Shrine Empire's part of the formidable Def Col Art Galleries circuit, so you'd easily be able to visit other Defence Colony galleries or even the eateries and bars of Defence Colony market, such as 4S and Genre.
Where: Shrine Empire Gallery, B-24, Lower Ground Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi
When: Until September 19. Open Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm.
Nearest metro station: Lajpat Nagar
Entry: Free
I Am Your Neighbour, I Am Your Lover, I Am | Blueprint12, Anand Niketan
Artist Rewati Shahani delves into themes of vulnerability, repair, and collective healing through intricate but spontaneous paintings. The exhibition confronts the violence of marginalization while holding space for intimacy and tender resistance. Using the figure of a neighbour, often an unfamiliar figure but one that can be the start of community, Shahani weaves personal and political narratives to investigate how bodies carry memory, how grief transforms into solidarity, and how community care can act as an antidote to systemic erasure. Blueprint12 came onto my radar after I saw their stunning exhibit at Delhi Contemporary Art Week, which recently concluded in Bikaner House.
Where: Blueprint12, A-20, Ground Floor, Anand Niketan, New Delhi
When: Until September 12. Open Tues-Sat, 11am-7pm.
Nearest metro station: Dhaula Khan on the orange line
Entry: Free
Tokyo, Before/After | National Gallery of Modern Art
A travelling exhibition by the Japan Foundation, this one’s in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and The Japan Foundation. Quite literally, it’ll juxtapose photographs of Tokyo in 1930-40 with the 2010s, looking at both how the city has transformed over the years and how it’s retained a sort of timeless spirit. The haunting, here, is in between the lines. NGMA is by far the city's most well-known art spot. Get ice cream from nearby.
Where: National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, Shershah Rd, near India Gate, Delhi High Court, India Gate, New Delhi, Delhi 110003
When: Until September 19. Open Tues-Fri (10am-6pm), Sat-Sun (11am-8pm).
Nearest metro station: Khan Market on the violet line
Entry: Free