National, January 2026 – For a decade, Lodhi Colony has stood at the crossroads of everyday life and artistic expression, where walls, streets, and neighbourhood rhythms have evolved into a living, open-air landscape. To mark ten years of India’s first public art district, the Lodhi Art Festival returns from 1–28 February 2026, by St+art India Foundation and Asian Paints, celebrating a sustained vision of public art that brings colour, creativity, and engagement into the heart of everyday urban life.
Located in Lodhi Colony, New Delhi, a non-gated residential neighbourhood developed in the 1940s and 50s, Lodhi Art district sits between Khanna Market and Meherchand Market. What began in 2015 with just three murals has since evolved into a pioneering public art district. Shaped through a long-term collaboration between St+art India Foundation and Asian Paints, Lodhi Art District has changed how art is encountered in the public realm in India. Between 2016 and 2019, over 100 Indian and international artists were invited to create murals and performative interventions, gradually transforming Lodhi into a living public collection shaped by sustained engagement, artist residencies, and community presence.
Today, the district is home to over 65 murals and draws a diverse range of audiences, from photographers, students, and local residents to international dignitaries including Brigitte Macron, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and Tim Cook. Guided by the ethos of #Art for All, this approach has enabled six art districts across India—Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, and Coimbatore, through ongoing institutional and partner collaboration.
Curated around the concept Dilate All Art Spaces, the 2026 edition expands the definition of what an art space can be: not a bounded venue, but a lived ecology shaped by movement, memory, routine, and shared attention. Supported by Asian Paints, whose long-standing engagement with colour and public life guides this approach, the festival brings together new murals, performative and participatory interventions, interdisciplinary collaborations, public tours, community outreach programmes, and digital activations. Together, these elements position Lodhi as a site of international exchange while remaining rooted in the everyday textures of the neighbourhood.
Mr. Amit Syngle, MD & CEO, Asian Paints Ltd., says, “Lodhi Art District represents what can happen when art is allowed to grow patiently within a city. Over the last decade, this neighbourhood has shown how colour, creativity, and everyday life can come together in ways that feel open, inclusive, and deeply human. For Asian Paints, our association with Lodhi and with St+art India Foundation has always been rooted in the belief that art in public spaces does more than beautify walls. It creates connection, invites dialogue, and becomes part of how people experience their city. As Lodhi Art District marks ten years as India’s first public art district, we are proud to support a journey built on long-term commitment, collaboration, and care. This milestone reaffirms our belief that when creativity is shared generously in public life, it has the power to shape cities and bring people closer to one another.”
Speaking on the art district, Founders, St+art India Foundation said, “When we began at Lodhi in 2015, we were testing whether a wall in a living neighbourhood could hold more than an image, whether public art could remain in the city long enough to become part of its everyday intelligence. Over ten years, Lodhi has grown through trust and return, shaped by artists who committed to the street, residents who shared their walls and their patience, institutions that supported a long process, and government partners who enabled the conditions for openness. We are equally grateful to Asian Paints, whose long-term support has helped bring joy and a sustained engagement with colour into the public realm. As we look ahead, our hope is to let Lodhi deepen rather than simply expand: to keep building new forms of public encounter, strengthen care and continuity as part of the work, and grow a network of art districts across India that remain rooted in their neighbourhoods while speaking to the world.”
Six New Murals
The 2026 edition introduces six new murals by Indian and international artists, each shaped by distinct practices while collectively engaging with Lodhi Art District as a shared public canvas. These works reflect the district’s continued commitment to dialogue, collaboration, and long-term presence in the city.
The participating artists include JuMu (Germany), Pener (Poland), Raissa Pardini (United Kingdom) with the late Hanif Kureshi (India), Elian Chali (Argentina), Svabhu Kohli (India) alongside Ram Sangchoju (India), and a collaborative mural by Suso33 (Spain), Tarini Sethi (India), and Ishaan Bharat (India). (Annexure)
Together, these six murals extend Lodhi Art District’s role as a site for public dialogue, cross-cultural exchange, and experimentation, reinforcing the district as a living public canvas. (Details about each artist in the Annexure below).
Beyond the Walls
In its ten-year edition, the festival expands beyond static murals into moving and participatory interventions that circulate through the district, extending Lodhi’s visual language into everyday urban life.
The Cycle Rickshaw Project marks a decade of Lodhi Art District through motion. Ten active cycle rickshaws are transformed into mobile artworks, each designed in pairs by five of the district’s most widely recognised and representative artists from the past ten years.
The inflatable installation by Nicolas Barrome Forgues conceived as a blooming garden of surreal, humanised flowers, moves through the city as a temporary landscape of colour and pause. Drawing from the Asian Paints Colour of the Year, the installation transforms each site it inhabits into a fleeting space of renewal and shared encounter.
The festival opens on 1 February 2026 with ELEVATION, a site-responsive French performance presented in collaboration with the French Institute in India and the Alliance Française network. Bringing together works by Yoann Bourgeois and Lucas Struna, the performance explores balance, suspension, and gravity through the body in motion.
Panels, Walkthroughs, and Workshops
Throughout the month, panel discussions take place every weekend, alongside guided walkthroughs and hands-on workshops. These sessions open up conversations around street art practices, access, disability, ecology, colour, and emerging forms of public art, creating multiple entry points for audiences to engage with the district beyond viewing alone.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Urban Development, Central Public Works Department, New Delhi Municipal Council, and Swachh Bharat Mission for their cooperation and support in sustaining Lodhi Art District.
Instagram Reel Link – Lodhi Art Festival 2026
