This July and August, Sotheby’s presents The South Asia Edit, a series of exhibitions celebrating six distinct voices in the history of South Asian modern and contemporary art. Rather than proposing a singular narrative, the project showcases the artistic achievement of each artist through a series of focused presentations dedicated to Francis Newton Souza, Mohan Samant, Bhupen Khakhar, Zarina, Zahoor ul Akhlaq and Sheherezade Alam.

The exhibitions feature important sequences of works, whether Souza’s Christian iconography of the 1980s, Samant’s celebrated Music & Dance series, Khakhar’s experimental printmaking of the 1990s and early 2000s, or Zarina’s explorations in gold leaf. The South Asia Edit also spotlights the pioneering Pakistani artist couple Akhlaq and Alam, presenting Akhlaq’s paintings in conversation with Alam’s timeless ceramics. Taken together, these exhibitions offer a series of encounters with some of the most compelling artistic practices to emerge from South Asia in the 20th century.