Rajiv Menon Contemporary will open its much anticipated permanent gallery on February 17th, 2025, at 1311 N. Highland Avenue in Los Angeles, California.
The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, EXHIBITIONISM will explore artists’ relationship to privacy and attention through depictions of intimacy, domesticity, and the art world. The exhibition features over 20 artworks by 19 leading contemporary South Asian artists from around the globe. In response to the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, the gallery recognizes the urgent need to support and uplift the community and will donate a portion of proceeds from its inaugural exhibition to SevaSphere and the California Community Foundation to aid those affected by the wildfires.
Founded in 2023, Rajiv Menon Contemporary is dedicated to bringing contemporary South Asian and diasporic art to the United States. With its permanent home on N. Highland Avenue, Rajiv Menon Contemporary is one of the few galleries in the United States, and on the West Coast, to specialize in contemporary South Asian art.
“Contemporary Indian art isn’t niche– it is universally accessible and relevant to global culture, with our new permanent space in Los Angeles, we hope to serve as a cultural hub in North America for the incredible talent coming out of South Asia and the diaspora, while also bringing art into larger dialogue with the cultural strides being made here by South Asian creatives, especially in Hollywood. Art is also an incredible catalyst for community-building. At this difficult time in LA, we hope to be a unifying force—bringing people together again over artistic exploration and expression—in true LA spirit.”
Rajiv Menon, Founder of Rajiv Menon Contemporary.
The gallery’s opening show, EXHIBITIONISM, explores the pleasures and pains of being seen, and the complex aesthetics that arise from both desiring and resisting attention. Ranging from the erotic to the domestic, the autobiographical to the fantastic, the works featured demonstrate how artists negotiate the boundary between public and private. The exhibition will be on view from February 17 to March 30, 2025.
EXHIBITIONISM gathers not only the top tier of Indian artists, recognized by institutions across the world and across the culture, but also those whose work demonstrates the universality of South Asian art. The artists featured range from emerging to established, including such acclaimed artists as Chitra Ganesh, Sunil Gupta, and Jagannath Panda, who collectively have been featured in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, the Tate Britain, and the Museum of London, among others. Also showing are Tarini Sethi (coming off her win of the Vortic Prize at Untitled Miami); Mustafa Mohsin, Faiza Butt, and Joya Mukerjee Logue (all making their West Coast debut); and Raghav Babbar (making his commercial gallery debut in the United States).
The full list of exhibiting artists includes: Aman Aheer, Raghav Babbar, Sanié Bokhari, Faiza Butt, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Chitra Ganesh, Shyama Golden, Sunil Gupta, Asif Hoque, Noorain Inam, Shradha Kochhar, Joya Mukerjee Logue, Anoushka Mirchandani, Mustafa Mohsin, Jagannath Panda, Sahana Ramakrishnan, Tarini Sethi, Ricky Vasan, Nadia Waheed
Rajiv Menon founded the gallery not only because South Asian art has been historically marginalized in contemporary art, but because the subjects, themes, and sentiments central to these artworks are globally resonant. Menon earned his PhD from New York University, where he studied global media and visual culture, with additional coursework from The Sotheby’s Institute. An avid collector of South Asian art himself, Rajiv pivoted from his work in film and television to the art world and has made it his mission to expand the art collecting audience within diasporic communities and to promote new, emerging creatives from South Asia. In the gallery’s first year, the program placed multiple works by South Asian artists into major museum collections in the United States, including ICA Miami, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Bunker ArtSpace, and the Portland Museum of Art. In May 2024, Rajiv was honored by the City of Los Angeles for his contributions to the city’s art landscape.
Beyond a gallery space, Rajiv Menon Contemporary will exist as a site for broad cultural exchange between the United States and India, crossing art, fashion, and entertainment. The design of the space is inspired by Indian art galleries, with a private garden and courtyard meant to evoke exterior spaces in South Asia. While rooted in the South Asian identity and aesthetics, Rajiv Menon Contemporary aims to demonstrate the global significance and influence of the region’s art and culture.
“I want the gallery to serve as a bridge between the Subcontinent and the West Coast. I hope that visitors can feel that larger cultural conversation as soon as they enter the space,”
says Menon.
About
Rajiv Menon Contemporary is a new art gallery program focused on perspectives from emerging regions and their diasporas. With a particular–though not exclusive–focus on artists with origins in South Asia, Rajiv Menon founded the gallery to help bring these dynamic and innovative perspectives to the forefront of culture in Los Angeles. The space aims to help shape the next generation of collectors, empowering new voices to advocate on behalf of artists. From making contemporary art more accessible to new art collectors, to placing emerging artists into major museums and private collections, Rajiv Menon Contemporary aims to start a movement and shift our collective culture from all directions. @rajivmenoncontemporary
