Emerging Artists and Collectors Claim Space at India Art Fair 2026, But What Lies Behind the Curtains?

Walk into India Art Fair 2026 and the cultural mathematics becomes immediately clear. Sabyasachi has made his debut with his art foundation, Ai WeiWei and Marina Abramović have made their presence clear.

Indian legends are not far behind. At DAG's Booth, stone artefacts and art history, anchor a booth that also features Satish Gujral and M.V. Dhurandhar. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art's Tyeb Mehta IAF parallel retrospective looms large in parallel programming, as 100 years of Satish Gujral claims space at the National Gallery of Modern Art, whilst Aicon Contemporary draws collectors with M.F. Husain's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, a tribute to Satyajit Ray commanding both reverence and serious rupees. Somnath Hore has a whole gallery dedicated to her legacy at Crayon Art Gallery.

International galleries are not far. Australian High Commission, Korean Cultural Centre, Saatchi Yates and more have made their mark. Spaces like Serendipity Arts and Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) are attracting crowd with their creative interactive art installations.

The prestige is palpable. When asked why Chawla Art Gallery exclusively presents legends like Souza, Ara, and Raza, their response was unambiguous. "It is a purposeful choice, marketplace choice. Otherwise, it is available everywhere anyway."

Similarly, Archer Art Gallery sells serigraph print pieces of the legendary painter, M.F. Hussain and Raza at 7.5 lakhs, and so, the demand is such that even prints are sold at such a whopping amount. When asked about it, the representative said, “It is made into copies with the artist’s permission. Hussain’s piece is a 100-copy piece. Raza’s 200.”

Just next stall, at Gallery Art Exposure, a painting of the same series is selling at a whopping amount for the original acrylic piece.

Yet amidst this concentration of 20th-century masters, something unexpected is happening. Emerging artists aren't just securing wall space; they're staging quiet rebellions through material and method.

At Exhibit 320, helmed by founder-director Rasika Kajaria and celebrating 15 years at India Art Fair, the selling power proved so much that the gallery had to change its whole setup overnight after selling most pieces within a day.

Deepak Kumar from the Exhibit 320, whose large-scale installation stands at the entrance of the fair and whose work focuses on urbanisation and how nature interacts with it, reflects poetically on his position, "I am such grass that can grow anywhere," he says when asked about occupying space alongside legends.

Richa Arya at Exhibit 320 works with bronze and brass sheets, materials heavy with industrial and cultural weight from her native Haryana. "I focus on the irony of my material, the burden of metal in my case, bronze, since it is also prevalent in Haryana, from where I belong," she explains. "Material and messaging also matter to us. I feel emerging artists, despite having less time and experience with their materials, have rebelled to make the medium their own."

Rinku Chaudhary, an artist presenting at Art Incept and a College of Art graduate talks about meeting her classmates, colleagues, and having 'hope' both in real life and through her art, "It is somtimes daunting to be here at the art fair. It is my first time and it feels at once amazing and also fearful to be standing here amidst these legends and so much experience."

At Anant Art Gallery, led by founder-director Mamata Singhania, who opened a new multi-storeyed space on January 30 at Safdarjung, the roster reflects similar material experimentation. Artists like Tito Stanley SJ, Aditya Puthur, and Aarti Kadam, both currently showing at Kochi Biennale, navigate between accessibility and artistic integrity. At Art Centrix Space, artists like Pinaki Mohanty bring Chilika's landscapes and srruggles to life through their art that crosses mediums, while at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad based artists bring forth their creativity to the city of djinns.

Amidst this, a question lingers about the kind of space that these emerging artists get and at what cost.

The Rs. 1 Lakh Threshold and Its Discontents

Galleries including Anant Art Gallery, Emami Art, Chemould Lab, Danfe Arts, Apre Art House, and others are offering works priced under Rs. 1 lakh. The move appears to be democratising. First-time buyers are indeed entering the fair with chequebooks, not just catalogues.

Anant Art Gallery views fairs as essential access points. "Fairs are a platform to give access to art, access to art to different databases, and collecting is a journey. You have to start at some point." 

The younger collector base, which they've cultivated, spans "late twenties going up to like early forties." Career development is deliberate and tailored. "We have to start somewhere. And we're taking things slowly, but also, I would say that the projection in the past two years has been very different for all our artists. We've moved out to different platforms, not only in India, but overseas as well, art fairs being one of them." 

"I didn't realise there were works under Rs. 1 lakh until I started actually asking questions," observes Sakshi Malhotra, a 28-year-old first-time buyer from Delhi. "I always assumed the fair wasn't meant for people like me, that it was more about looking than buying. Seeing galleries like Anant Art and Chemould show at these price points makes collecting feel less like an elite club and more like a slow entry point."

Yet price alone doesn't dissolve "intimidation". Rohan Khanna, another first-time visitor, articulates the deeper barrier, "Price is part of it, yes, but honestly, it's the intimidation. I don't always know how to talk about the work in the 'right' way, or what questions I'm supposed to ask. The moment you cross into a booth, it can feel like everyone already knows the language of art, and you're just catching up."

What Actually Moves Works Off Walls?

According to Sahil Bhopal,an artist at Danfe Arts specialising in Tangka painting from Tibetan Buddhism, recognition is more important than radicality. "I think familiarity or belief in subjects more than price point is what is selling art here. I am seeing either Indian traditional art with familiar subjects like gods, or abstract contemporary art, selling more."

The commercial velocity is undeniable. Aakriti Chandervanshi at Apre Art House, whose works sold rapidly on opening day, attributes it to emotional resonance, "Memory carried it. I have only practised for five years, and almost no one knows me. I am also not from Delhi or know anyone in the art scene here, but the selling happened quickly based on the pull of memory and connection alone."

This observation cuts to the paradox. Emerging artists gain access, but within constraints. Kaushik Sahaat Exhibit 320 frames it directly, "Symbolism matters to me. Art-affiliated persons would understand the motifs: the hammer and sickle, the crescent and star, but commoners won't—they will notice the colours, the mannerisms, and quotidian symbols. My art, I feel, is not for the elite only but for commoners. The elite will understand the meaning, and they will buy, but ultimately what matters for me is that commoners need to relate."

Structural Tension, Sustaining The Ecosystem And Education for the Audience

The tension also seems structural. Emerging artists must be legible enough to sell yet distinct enough to matter. They must work within material budgets that keep prices accessible whilst producing work substantial enough to command institutional attention.

They must navigate a market, as Somya Sahni, Senior Manager, Learning and Outreach, KNMA who curated the KNMA Learning Space at the fair says, "In art fairs, we only think that they're a space for gallerists and collectors, but that's not the fact. We get many students, art enthusiasts, and people who wish to buy art for the first time, but they don't know how to do so because they don't know the process. And sometimes they see art, and they say, 'What is this? Anybody can do it, you know?' But the idea is to just educate them a little more, tell them what goes into the practice, and why an art piece is worth what it is."

Arjun Desai, a sceptical mid-career collector, remains unconvinced and says, "I'm not convinced the sub-Rs.1 lakh segment is changing 'collecting' in any meaningful way. Often, these works are smaller, safer, or strategically priced to lure new buyers, whilst the real attention and prestige still flow towards high-value, blue-chip pieces. It feels more like a gateway than a redistribution."

Even those who have begun collecting acknowledge the limitations. Vikram Chatterjee, a young collector in his early thirties who already owns several works, observes, "The sub-Rs. 1 lakh segment is where I spend the most time. That's where you discover artists before they get locked into a certain market bracket. For me, it's less about resale value and more about finding work that feels urgent—something that reflects the world we're actually living in."

Yet his focus on "discovering artists before they get locked in" reveals the underlying mechanism: the affordable segment functions less as an alternative ecosystem and more as a proving ground for future blue-chip ascension.

Meera Sethi, an established collector and long-time IAF attendee, makes the hierarchy explicit. "I appreciate the effort to make collecting more accessible, but my focus remains on historically significant practices. Blue-chip works come with context, provenance, and longevity. That said, I do think these lower price points are important—not for me necessarily, but for sustaining the ecosystem."

Sustaining the ecosystem. The phrase lingers. What's being sustained,  a more equitable structure, or simply a wider base feeding into the same apex? 

As India Art Fair 2026 reaches its pinnacle, the sub-Rs. 1 lakh threshold has undeniably brought new collectors through the doors. Whether those collectors are building a different kind of art world or simply joining the existing one at a more affordable entry point remains an unanswered question. The matchboxes and cigarette butts may share wall space with Mehta and Husain, but whether they'll ever command the same institutional gravity, or whether that's even the right aspiration, will be determined not in four days of sales velocity, but in the years of sustained attention, or neglect, that follow.