Unspoken Influence: The Legacy of Indus Gallery
September 19, 2026 - March 13 , 2027
South Asia Institute
1925 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Thursday — Saturday, 11:00am — 6:00pm
"I decided to come back to Pakistan and be helpful to those who are more gifted and more talented than me, and to create a climate of work where I could be a sort of guidance and help." — Ali Imam
Ali Imam was one of the six main figures of the Lahore Art Circle collective whose art ushered in the first decade of Pakistan’s independence. This moment in a newly independent nation offered creatives the opportunity to decide what art should be in their time. Iftikhar Dadi’s seminal text, Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia asserted that the depth and diversity of this region’s land and people gave rise to a modernism without a single point of origin. The abundance of artistic styles and attitudes among the wealth of artists who exhibited at Indus Gallery demonstrates active engagement with this idea. The struggle to define contradictions between grand histories and anecdotal experiences left a vacuum that only consistent social engagement with fellow South Asian artists and thinkers could fill. When Ali Imam returned from a decade in Europe, he founded Indus Gallery in 1971, a place that became a hub of creative energy and a free flow of ideas, bringing together artists, collectors, and thinkers.
Unspoken Influence: The Legacy of Indus Gallery celebrates a history of cultivating creative environments for established and emerging South Asian artists. Instead of chronologizing the movement, the exhibition presents a series of relationships built on peer mentorship. Despite receiving little scholarly attention, Indus Gallery’s lasting influence is evident in the work of contemporary artists taught by many of its most frequent visitors. Artmaking is typically seen as a solitary activity rather than a social one. Increasing attention towards the disappearance of third spaces calls us to look back on a time when studios were likewise seen as community spaces. Artists in this exhibition display incredible individual