Sculpted India Puts the Country's Overlooked Medium at the Center of the Room

Sculpted India's presentation at Design Democracy Hyderabad this September gathers three-dimensional works by some of the most significant names in modern and contemporary Indian art, and it does so with a clear purpose: to move sculpture from the edges of the country's art conversation towards its center. The showcase runs from 18 to 20 September 2026 at booth C20, bringing together works by Thota Vaikuntam, Krishen Khanna, M.F. Husain, Himmat Shah, Jogen Chowdhury, Dhananjay Singh, Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, and Yashika Sugandh.

The presentation is led by Sanya Malik, Raj Manohar Thota, the son of Thota Vaikuntam, and Abhivardhan Berry, who, between them, work across art, culture, and the wider creative landscape. Their premise is that sculpture sits naturally at the meeting point of art, architecture, and design, which makes it, in their view, an essential rather than incidental part of how thoughtfully designed spaces come together. Where furniture, lighting, and textiles define a room's function and look, the organizers suggest, sculpture brings something more lasting, a sense of identity, and cultural resonance that lifts a space beyond decoration.

The works on show span a range of materials, forms, and practices, and the curators frame them around the questions artists return to: identity, culture, nature, human existence, and the built environment. The larger ambition, according to Sculpted India, is to treat form, scale, texture, and material as a language that can hold its own dialogue with architecture so that a sculptural work, whether monumental or intimate, becomes a focal point that shapes how a room is experienced rather than simply an object placed within it.

That thinking sits within the initiative's broader mission. Sculpted India describes itself as a public art platform founded to give modern and contemporary Indian sculpture the visibility and recognition it has long been denied, moving the medium out of the confines of the traditional gallery and into immersive exhibitions, public installations, and collaborations with cultural institutions. The aim, as the organizers put it, is less to mount individual shows than to build an enduring cultural movement that places sculpture at the heart of contemporary Indian art.

Sculpted India runs from 18 to 20 September 2026 at Design Democracy, Hyderabad, booth C20.