Blue Futures: Reimagining Indigo at Hampi Art Labs

Indigo has never been a neutral colour. Long before it entered the language of fashion or modern abstraction, it was a material shaped by land, labour and belief — cultivated, fermented, resisted and traded across continents. Blue Futures: Reimagining Indigo, on view until 15 February 2026 at Hampi Art Labs in Karnataka, India, approaches indigo not as surface or symbol, but as an active force: a material that holds memory, carries contradiction and continues to generate meaning.

Ajit Kumar Das, Neel Basanta, 2025. Natural pigments painted on handwoven cloth, 48 x 84 in, Artist’s Collection.

Curated by Meera Curam, the exhibition is grounded in the proposition that indigo operates as a “current, carrying with it the weight of centuries and the breath of futures yet to unfold.” This sense of movement animates the exhibition, as historical knowledge and contemporary experimentation are brought into close conversation. Works drawn from the Indigo Art Museum collection sit alongside newly realised practices, positioning indigo as both archive and proposition...

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Image Credits:

Lead: Aboubakar Fofana Untitled 2019 Natural indigo on Curcuilingo villosa fibre 81.6 x 46.8 in (triptych) Indigo Art Museum.

All further images as credited in photo captions.