Dhoomimal Gallery to Spotlight 60 Emerging Artists at the 34th Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Exhibition

Connaught Place, with its colonnaded corridors and restless rhythm, has seen much of New Delhi’s cultural history unfold. At its centre, tucked inside the Outer Circle, Dhoomimal Gallery has stood witness for nearly ninety years — India’s oldest modern art gallery, and a name that has quietly, consistently shaped conversations around Indian art. This September, the gallery turns the spotlight once again on the country’s youngest voices with the 34th Annual Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Exhibition and Awards 2025.

The initiative, born in 1991 out of Smt. Uma Jain’s desire to honour the memory of her husband, Ravi Jain (1936–2000), remains one of the rare long-standing platforms dedicated entirely to emerging talent. Ravi Jain was no ordinary gallerist. His vision and instinct helped define the city’s modernist moment, nurturing artists who would later come to be recognised as the backbone of Indian contemporary practice. His legacy was not only about showing art but about building an ecosystem that believed in risk, experimentation, and the nurturing of new voices.

This year’s exhibition opens on September 29 and runs until October 15, with more than 120 works on display. Around 60 artists have been shortlisted, selected from over 600 entries that poured in from across the country. The medium itself is diverse — painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, and digital installations — reflecting the multiplicity of contemporary Indian art. On October 14, four artists will be chosen for the Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Awards. Each receives not just a cash prize of ₹1,00,000 but continued mentorship and exposure through the gallery’s networks. For young artists, that kind of recognition at a formative stage often becomes the push that determines the shape of their careers.

For Uday Jain, Director of Dhoomimal Gallery and Ravi Jain’s son, the exhibition is both personal and public. “The exhibition and the awards carry forward my father’s vision of nurturing talent and building a vibrant ecosystem for art in India,” he notes. “Every year we see not just skill but the urgency of voices that want to be heard. That is what excites us — to give them a platform where both creativity and potential are recognised.”

Over three decades, the awards have grown into a crucial entry point for India’s art world. Many of its past recipients have become familiar names — Hemraj, G. R. Iranna, Nidhi Agarwal, Sonia Khurana, M. S. C. Satya Sai. Their works now sit in collections, museums, and exhibitions across the world, but many of their journeys began in the modest space of a Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation show. For young artists, this continuity is inspiring — proof that visibility, when backed by genuine support, can alter trajectories.

The jury for 2025 mirrors the eclectic nature of Indian art itself. Vibha Galhotra, whose practice navigates ecological and urban anxieties; Rekha Rodwittiya, celebrated for her feminist lens and layered figurations; Anish Gawande, curator and cultural commentator; Arunkumar H.G., known for experimental sculptural forms; and Ina Puri, a biographer and collector whose writing has chronicled Indian contemporary art for decades. This panel is not just about judgement but mentorship — their selections reflect not only quality but also the courage to support practices that push boundaries.

The philosophy underpinning the awards goes back to Ravi Jain’s own words: “For the art movement to perpetuate and grow, we cannot only rely on the established artists of the time. New talent must constantly be nurtured and supported.” It is this ethos that distinguishes the RJMF Awards from other platforms. While many exhibitions celebrate established names, this one is unapologetically focused on discovery — on the risk of investing in the untested, the unfamiliar, the raw.

For visitors, the exhibition is more than a survey of upcoming talent. It is a chance to sense where contemporary Indian art might be headed. The variety of work — digital interventions that question our relationship with screens, sculptures repurposed from found material, paintings that turn memory into form — offers a glimpse into the preoccupations of the next generation. It is an invitation to engage not with the familiar but with the yet-to-be-named.

Dhoomimal Gallery itself has always occupied this position of bridge-builder. Founded in 1936, it became synonymous with modernism in India under Ravi Jain’s leadership, supporting artists at a time when the infrastructure for art was thin. Today, under Uday Jain, it remains committed to the same principle: that the vitality of a culture depends not only on its established masters but on the infusion of new blood.

The Foundation, meanwhile, ensures that this legacy goes beyond exhibition-making. Scholarships, outreach, and public engagement initiatives ensure that Ravi Jain’s belief in accessibility continues to guide its work. At a time when the art world often appears exclusive, the RJMF attempts to keep its doors open, both literally and metaphorically, to wider communities.

Walking through the 2025 edition, what one will encounter is not polish but potential. The nervous energy of young artists, the boldness of experimentation, the rawness of voices still finding their shape. That is what makes the show moving: it is not about certainty, it is about possibility.

Exhibition Details

• What: 34th Annual Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Exhibition & Awards 2025

• When: September 29 – October 15, 2025 (11 am – 7 pm, Sunday closed; free entry)

• Where: Dhoomimal Gallery, G-42, Outer Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi

• Highlights: 60 emerging artists with 120+ works across paintings, sculptures, video & digital art

• Awards: Four young artists to be honoured with ₹1,00,000 each plus mentorship