In August, we’re going gallery-hopping

Art everywhere

The Indian art scene has a few things up its sleeve right now. Bengaluru-based KYNKYNY has officially made its Mumbai debut, opening its first gallery in the city at Horniman Circle with The Urban Biome. Curated by Vivek Radhakrishnan, the inaugural exhibition brings together Krisha Bhuva, Hemanth Kumar Mavuri, Sunil K, N Divya, Simran Yagyik, and Nivedita Shinde to look at the places we live in and the strange, messy ecosystems we create around ourselves. 

Over in Delhi, Pulp Society is presenting Things Are Not As They Seem, Manuja Waldia’s solo debut in the city. “For this debut, the body of work draws from recurring themes in my practice, the beauty and traps of brown femininity, desire, and ‘things not being as they seem’,” Waldia says, describing the show as an exploration of the double entendre in the nature of reality. It’s also a full-circle moment for the artist, who studied visual design at NIFT’s Hauz Khas campus. “It seemed a full circle moment to do my debut in the city,” she says. Waldia has long admired Pulp Society for its work with artists who use paper, making this collaboration a little more special. “I was thrilled to work together to exhibit their first show of oil paintings,” she says.

In Bengaluru, Gallery Sumukha completes 30 years with a special solo show by G Ravinder Reddy starting August 29. Meanwhile, Chennai is basically turning itself into one large contemporary art itinerary for 20 days with Contemporary Now Edition III. The city-wide programme brings together 66 artists and seven galleries, including Tarq, Experimenter, and Vadehra Art Gallery, across galleries, studios, and cultural spaces. This year’s theme, ‘Practices in Continuum: Tracing the Present’, asks what happens when artists don’t quite leave the past behind but drag its histories, materials, and memories into the now. Expect exhibitions, studio visits, walkthroughs, and conversations, which means there is a very good excuse to spend the next few days looking at art, wandering around cities, and pretending you have a plan. Expect exhibitions, studio visits, walkthroughs, and conversations, with plenty of reasons to hop between venues and see where the day takes you. —Sheya Kurian

The Urban Biome is on view at KYNKYNY, Mumbai, till September 4

Things Are Not As They Seem is on view at Pulp Society, New Delhi, till October 9

Contemporary Now: Edition III is on across Chennai till August 25

Veggies you can geek out on

Imagine a food festival featuring 30-plus tribal cooks, 40-plus foraged wild vegetables, and a 92-year-old Padma Shri awardee playing the tarpa. The Wild Food Festival, to be held on August 23 at RPH College, will bring together tribal farmers and chefs to showcase over 100 limited-edition dishes using sustainably sourced ingredients through OOO Farms, a farmer-led movement that conserves native and indigenous seeds. Head chef Thomas Zacharias says, “For us, the Wild Food Festival is about creating greater visibility for the people and knowledge systems behind these foods rather than presenting wild ingredients simply as something new or exotic for an urban audience.” Folk: A Wild Food Thali, for instance, features mahua raw rasam, mutton goli kebabs, chicken curry with gharbandi saag, pendhra phirni, mahua pani puri, Akarghoda litti with Fatangadi chokha, and gharbandi gatte ki subzi. The dishes incorporate tubers, berries, and mushrooms from the Western Ghats. Organised by OOO Farms in collaboration with chef Zacharias and The Locavore, at the day-long event you can walk through a display of wild vegetables and a community seed bank, attend expert sessions, and taste the cooked wild vegetables, followed by dinner and a cultural programme. —Ara Mishra

The Wild Food Festival is on August 23 at Bunts Sangha’s RPH College, Mumbai, from 2 to 9 pm. Tickets are priced at ₹1,475 on ooofarms.com

In a heritage bungalow in Bengaluru, 180-year old saris and other treasures

Housed inside Prithvi, a restored bungalow in Richmond Town dating back to 1932, The Registry brings together a centre for design as they celebrate 10 years of preserving India's handspun and handwoven textile traditions. The opening exhibit, Perched Upon a Woven Sky, draws from archives of The Registry of Sarees and invites visitors to experience textiles like never before. These weaves have been accumulated by The Registry over the last decade from Kanchipuram, Varanasi, Venkatagiri, Ponduru, Uppada, Aarni, Bengal, Chettinad, and Punjab, while some have been generously donated by textile connoisseurs. Expect to find treasured pieces like a 180-year-old cotton sash in deep indigo, made in Varanasi. The flagship store, Yali, is a contemporary textile label, and alongside it is Pekko, an intentional body and self-care brand. Finish your day at Prithvi at Indulge, a cafe with a menu that uses local produce. This centre makes for the perfect day out, with design education, shopping, and food all in one place. —Ara Mishra

The Registry 7, Cornwell Road, Langford Gardens, Bengaluru

This wedding season has a new It-blouse

Jade by Monica and Karishma’s autumn/winter 2026 collection, ‘The Hands That Remember’, is catnip for craft-obsessed maximalists. The collection draws on artistic director Monica Shah’s long-standing relationships with craft clusters across India through the brand’s Grassroots Artisans Project, bringing techniques that might traditionally live on separate garments into conversation in one another on each richly detailed look.

There are bandhani and leheriya saris with moti bharat motifs and kasab borders and lehengas with impossibly tiny archival block prints—minuscule motifs that are a rarity today—layered with fine, detailed patterns in ek taar embroidery and gota work. But we’re especially obsessed with the moti bharat blouses. From a distance, the blouses, covered in vibrant, densely patterned floral motifs, look as if they were printed. Get closer and the trick reveals itself: the patterns are made up of thousands of beads—each sewn individually by hand. The effect is intricate, colourful, and just flashy enough, which is why we suspect brides are going to want one for at least one event on their wedding calendar. There are several versions to choose from too: long tasselled blouses, a bandeau, as well as a teeny tiny modern blouse with cap sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. —Chloe Chou

Available at Jade by Monica and Karishma stores and on jadebymk.com

Kadak chai meets oats

We’ve all been guilty of skipping our breakfast and have an endless number of reasons to justify it—a 9 am meeting, running late or convincing ourselves that we’ll eat once we’re in the office. With Over and Oat, we’re breaking the habit. Your breakfast can now accompany you and your hectic schedule. Founded by Aanchal Dharmani, the Mumbai-based brand has a variety of ready-to-eat overnight oatmeal, with over 20 grams of protein per jar, in a flavours like Espresso Yourself, Kadak Chai, and Brownie Points, to name a few. Dhramani shares, “The brand was born out of personal experiences. It felt almost personal when I came back from New York and couldn’t find anything like it in a city of working professionals running on empty. So, I made it myself.” Made with select ingredients, the oatmeal is gluten-free, vegan, and doesn’t contain refined sugar. —Nandini Gulati

Available on overandoat.com

A closet refresh awaits you

Looking for some one-of-a-kind pieces that no one on the block has while also not contributing to landfills filled with fast fashion? The Baro Market pop-up in Chennai has got you covered. Shop homegrown and handcrafted designs at The Folly at Amethyst on August 27, 28, and 29. We’re talking ceramic penguin salt and pepper shakers and the coolest handmade polka-dot shirts. Featured brands include Chiu, which creates intentional contemporary silhouettes with thoughtful craftsmanship, and Lata Sita, which transforms pre-loved saris into contemporary clothing. Foolstop is a playful dresser’s dream brand with its unconventional designs, while Koorm and Nest focus on natural materials to deliver consciously crafted lifestyle products.

This pop-up is on August 27, 28, and 29 at The Folly at Amethyst, Royapettah, Chennai

Save some suitcase space for AM:IT

Earlier this year, Amit Aggarwal brought back his ready-to-wear label AM:IT with a collection of not-so-basic basics: crisp shirts, trousers, and dresses punctuated with polymer stripes, metallic bibs, and minimalist geometric details. Now, the label is heading OOO.

Shot in sunny Sri Lanka and inspired by the designer and his partner Ankit’s travels through the country, the new campaign showcases just how suited pieces from the upcoming sophomore collection are to warm-weather holidays. Photographed against the red-and-yellow facade of Colombo’s Victoria Memorial Eye Hospital, the collection is full of breezy, throw-on-and-go silhouettes: a kaftan-style dress with a grid-like bib, a sleeveless mini skater dress with a sculptural skirt, and flowy tunics worn with fluid trousers—all in zingy shades of hot pink and orange borrowed from the island’s sunsets.

The local architecture sneaks into the clothes too. Striped arches and Geoffery Bawa’s latticework are translated as graphic, woven embellishments in the designer’s signature polymer. It’s joyful dressing for days spent somewhere warm: light, colourful, and a little unexpected. —Chloe Chou

Available soon on am-it.in

Tequila on my mind

The tequila shot has had a good run. But these days, tequila is less about licking salt at a party and more about pouring yourself a proper drink and savouring over the course of an evening. And Bodega Suprema No. 5’s entire range—Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo—lets you do just that without breaking the bank. The new tequila launch by Mohnish Mehta’s Black Tiger Distilleries has a sweet, fruit-forward profile. Distilled and bottled at origin in Jesús María, Jalisco, where Mehta spent a better part of three years, the spirit delivers on its ‘100% blue weber agave’ claim. “Back from my time in the US, I realised that to enjoy tequilla in India you either had to have deep pockets or to settle for sub-standard ones. Bodega Suprema No. 5 is the middle way out,” says Mehta. —Tanvi Parekh

Prices: ₹4,200 for Blanco, ₹4,500 for Reposado, and ₹5,500 for Añejo for 750 ml. Currently available only through premium liquor vendors and stores in Mumbai

Want to live better, not just longer?

What if longevity wasn’t about chasing 100 but making the years before it count? That’s the question at the heart of Longevity Summit India, the country’s first-ever summit dedicated to the future of ageing, health, and human performance.

Happening at Fairmont Mumbai this weekend, the two-day deep-dive—presented by Fairmont Mumbai and Le Florence India—gets into the science, tech, and slightly mind-bending possibilities shaping how we might live in the future. Think biological age, peptides, regenerative medicine, brain performance, metabolic health, the gut-brain axis, nervous-system regulation and the increasingly buzzy world of biohacking.

The programming gets particularly interesting when science meets the more experiential side of wellness. There are sessions on photobiomodulation, neuroadaptation, flow states and coherence, alongside conversations about emotional resilience, relationships, sleep, stress, fertility, and even the role of human connection in longevity.

Then there are the Experience Zones, where you can get a little more hands-on with the future: red-light therapy, cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen, NAD+ and IV therapy, gut-health testing, genomic and AI-powered health, peptides, frequency technologies and biohacking gadgets. Basically, your wellness rabbit hole just got a physical address.

The summit’s central idea—’One Life. Five Bodies. Five Frequencies’—is less about finding one magic longevity hack and more about looking at the whole picture: body, brain, emotions, environment, connection and everything in between. Because maybe the better question isn’t ‘How long can we live?’. It’s: How good can we make the living part? —Sheree Gomes Gupta

At Fairmont Mumbai, August 15 and 16. Register here