Hyderabad’s Moment: Reclaiming Its Throne in the Indian Art Landscape

Metropolitan hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai are bursting with artistic activity—galleries, art fairs, digital platforms, and cultural funding often saturate the creative atmosphere there. Even Chennai is seeing a surge in indoor art workshops blending community, therapy, and skill‑building. In contrast, Hyderabad—a city with a deeply rooted heritage of fine arts, performing traditions, and craftsmanship—deserves to rise as a contemporary art powerhouse. Art is a city’s heartbeat, and Hyderabad must not be left behind

Why Hyderabad Needs a Platform for Authentic Artistic Revival

Heritage & Cultural Resonance Hyderabad’s legacy includes centuries of patronage—from Qutub Shahis to Asaf Jahs—and a rich visual culture that spans miniature painting, folklore, printmaking, and evocative urban life scenes captured by local painters.

Rising National Momentum A recent landmark sale—a painting by M.F. Husain fetching $13.7 million—is a powerful signal of Indian art’s growing global clout. Auction prices are climbing, and international institutions are showcasing Indian artists like never before. Hyderabad must seize this wave of recognition.

The Visibility Challenge Talented Hyderabad-based artists often struggle for exposure and gallery space. While the city does have venues such as Kalakriti, Gallery Space, Shrishti, ICONART, Aalankritha, Muse Art Gallery, Inspire Art Gallery, and others, there’s still a pronounced gap in aggregated digital and global platforms spotlighting their work.

Emerging Community & Street Art Potential Initiatives like the Maqtha Art District—Hyderabad’s street art zone featuring murals by local and international artists—hint at what public art could achieve: accessibility, visibility, and inspiration. Yet, such efforts remain intermittent, and the broader creative ecosystem is still catching up.

Hyderabad has always nurtured an abundance of artistic brilliance—too often overlooked, yet continually thriving across generations and styles. The city’s creative tapestry includes legends like Laxman Aelay, Priyanka Aelay, Thota Vaikuntam, Laxma Goud, Nandini Goud, and Surya Prakash, alongside contemporary forces such as Lakshman Aelay, Nagesh Goud, Priyanka Aelay, Kandi Narsimlu, Shankar Pamarthy, Devulapalli Hanumantha Rao, Fawad Tamkanat, Varunika Saraf, Sayam Bharath Yadav, and Moshe Dayan Bhupathi. Their work spans printmaking, hyperrealism, abstraction, figurative painting, political miniatures, cartoons, and public art. Yet many of these trailblazers have created outside the glare of national platforms. It's this unresolved gap—between profound talent and limited exposure—that makes it so urgent today to build a truly authentic platform to showcase, elevate, and activate Hyderabad’s long-dormant art force.

Hyderabad holds within it a vast reservoir of artistic excellence, threaded through generations and mediums—from caricature to woodcuts, from classical canvas to public murals. Yet, without an authentic, committed, multi-channel platform, it risks being overlooked—just as other metros have already taken the spotlight.

Initiatives like hyd.art offer a promising blueprint, but more is needed: a broader network, stronger visibility, and a sustained narrative that brands Hyderabad once again as a thriving global art hub. Now—more than ever—is the time to raise that baton and charge ahead.