LA Roots, Global Reach: Rajiv Menon on Elevating South Asian Art in America

One year after opening the doors to his physical Hollywood space, Rajiv Menon has positioned Rajiv Menon Contemporary as a vital conduit between Los Angeles and the subcontinent. What began as an ambitious proposition—to center South Asian and diasporic voices within one of the world’s most competitive art capitals—has quickly evolved into a site of cultural exchange that extends beyond the gallery walls. 

As the space marks its anniversary, Menon is presenting solo shows of Tarini Sethi (February 25–April 4, 2026) and Sahana Ramakrishnan, and preparing for an upcoming exhibition with Gurjeet Singh (July 18–August 29, 2026). With a roster that bridges emerging practices and institutional ambition, and a fair presence spanning Untitled Art and India Art Fair, Menon reflects on building canon, cultivating collectors across geographies, and expanding a program that is both deeply rooted in LA and unapologetically global.

Hollywood as Nexus: Building a Global South Asian Platform in LA

WHITEWALL: What has surprised you most about building a gallery in Los Angeles—particularly one centered on perspectives from South Asia and its diasporas?

RAJIV MENON: I truly did not know what to expect. But I’ve found that LA was an unexpectedly ideal location for the gallery. Hollywood has become a major epicenter for South Asian visuality. You have more connections being made between the Indian film industry and American media, and you also have more South Asians entering entertainment on the corporate and talent level. All of this has created great excitement about South Asian culture in LA, but there still weren’t any dedicated venues for the arts. On top of that, LA has become a deeply global art destination. I saw amazing work being shown from other regions of the world, but a huge gap around South Asia. Since launching, seasoned collectors have responded in a big way because they want to expand their collections and be globally representative in their collecting practices. I’ve seen the gallery become a major site of cultural exchange between the subcontinent and North America, and that impact has resonated beyond just the art world. 

WW: How has your physical location in Los Angeles shaped the kind of programming you’ve been able to present? Do you see the gallery as serving a local audience, or as a bridge between LA, India, and other global art centers?

RM: I see our gallery as a nexus for cultural exchange between LA, India, and the wider world. It’s important to be relevant to our immediate context and speak to local culture in Southern California. We do this through strong connections to LA institutions and partnerships in the wider culture, especially around film and TV. But though we are LA-based, I also see ourselves as a global gallery, and our audience is fairly scattered around the world. I want our gallery to be a first stop for international visitors in LA, and I want the excitement we’re building in LA to translate abroad, like with our partnership with Dishoom in London or our exhibition at the Jaipur Centre for Arts. I think this is central to our ethos. It’s never about choosing between being global or local, but instead finding ways to live in simultaneity.  

WW: Sahana Ramakrishnan’s upcoming exhibition draws from Arctic field research and mythological underworlds, using forms like the kavad to create layered storytelling structures. What drew you to her practice, and how does her work resonate within the broader framework of your gallery’s mission?

RM: I wanted to show practices that are simultaneously rooted in the contexts and art histories of South Asia, but are also pressing, urgent, and globally relevant. By drawing upon her broad interest in mythological painting from the Subcontinent, Sahana weaves in arctic marine life and storytelling to create a unique narrative language for thinking about our changing ecologies and shared landspace. She represents the type of broad cultural resonance I want to create in the gallery. Her focus on narrative art is clearly relevant in Los Angeles, and her creative reimaginings of myth speak to South Asia and beyond. Sahana is the kind of artist I strongly believe belongs in the global canon.

WW: In Tarini Sethi’s work, the body becomes a site of Indofuturist speculation—erotic, sacred, and confrontational all at once. How do you approach presenting work that is deeply rooted in Indian art histories yet pushes toward entirely new cosmologies?

RM: Tarini’s work is significant because it not only exposes audiences to rich art-making traditions in South Asia but also provides a totally new language for thinking about the body and ecologies. When I give a walkthrough of Tarini’s work, I’m not only educating audiences in LA and beyond about miniature and folk practices and the importance of paper in South Asian art making, but I’m also piquing their imagination about what utopia might look like. While I call her work “indofuturist,” her practice demonstrates that shared, speculative possibilities can still be rooted in a specific cultural viewpoint.

Group Shows as Syllabus: Introducing a Landscape, Not Just Artists at Rajiv Menon Contemporary

WW: Over the past year, you’ve mounted both focused solo exhibitions and thematic group shows. What is your curatorial philosophy when shifting between those formats? How do group exhibitions allow conversations between artists that might not emerge in a solo context?

RM: Group shows are very important to me because I’m introducing a whole landscape to Los Angeles, not just individual practices. I approach group shows like I’m building a syllabus, knowing that the audience in LA might not know a lot about South Asia and the global audience might not know much about American diaspora artists. I want to think about the big themes that weigh heavily on me, and how dialogue between artists can illuminate this. I also love showing how deeply universal cultural concerns can be tackled through specific South Asian perspectives. Our inaugural show in the Hollywood space, Exhibitionism, for example, explored our broad cultural attitudes towards intimacy and vulnerability, while also showcasing brilliant South Asian art practices. I want curation in our space to broadly impact the culture; this is always my core goal. 

WW: You’ve participated in fairs such as Untitled Art in Houston and Miami Beach, as well as India Art Fair. How did you consider which fairs would work best for your program?

RM: Every fair we’ve done has provided something new and powerful. Untitled Miami allowed us to introduce ourselves to the wide art landscape. Untitled Houston was a great opportunity to reintroduce myself to my hometown, and to galvanize an exciting, underserved audience of collectors. India Art Fair demonstrated that we are part of a global conversation around South Asia, and proved that there are major cultural stakes to what we’re building here in LA. We are so grateful for each of these fair experiences. 

Collectors as Custodians: Canon-Building Across the Diaspora

WW: A central part of your mission has been expanding the collector base within diasporic communities. What differences do you see between LA-based collectors and India-based collectors in terms of taste, risk appetite, or engagement with emerging artists?

RM: For both diasporic collectors and collectors in India, acquiring art is not just a consumer action; it’s an act of custodianship over a collective sense of visual identity. In India, young collectors who grew up after the country liberalized have a completely different approach to culture than their parents; they want to collect artists who capture and preserve the new realities of a nation. It’s a project to build the canon of a young country experiencing major transitions. In the US, many young Indian diaspora collectors are new to this space, but want to use art collecting to support a larger project of representation in the American mainstream. We are not only catalyzing new collectors, but we’re also getting young Indian Americans excited about museum patronage and the opportunity to shape American culture in a bigger way. While I expected a sharp sensibility gap between the homeland and the diaspora, both groups are open-minded, willing to take risks on young artists, and deeply concerned with supporting their peers. 

WW: You’ve spoken about placing emerging artists into major museums and private collections. How strategic are you in building institutional relationships, and what does long-term stewardship of an artist’s career look like to you?

RM: Institutions remain the ultimate tastemakers and signal longevity and significance. For young artists, this is an essential moment. And for a collective group like South Asians, who are often absent from contemporary collections, there’s a sense of cultural urgency. It’s not about getting one artist into a museum; it’s about getting multiple artists into museums to demonstrate a sense of canon. I deeply believe this is a pivotal cultural moment for South Asia, featuring not only great individual practices but also a larger cultural wave shaping the global mainstream. I think a gallerist has a responsibility to capture that moment and ensure it is institutionally represented. I take the responsibility of placing the work thoughtfully very seriously.

WW: What are you planning in Los Angeles this week—whether around your current exhibitions, collector events, studio visits, or community gatherings? How do you activate the gallery beyond the walls of the exhibition itself?

RM: We are still new, and I want to focus on introducing people to our space. We kicked off the week with a celebration of our first year in Hollywood, which truly represented our gallery’s spirit. It was a mix of seasoned collectors and curators, alongside young collectors and supporters from the South Asian community. Folks showed up not only to support the artists but also to celebrate the wider culture. People were excited to wear young Indian designers like Raw Mango, Kartik Research, and Almost Gods; looking around the room, you could see the vision of cultural exchange coming to fruition. 

Beyond that, I consider myself somewhat of an ambassador for South Asian art in LA, and I try to be present across the many events happening this week, not only to talk about the gallery but also to discuss all the opportunities emerging from South Asia. 

WW: Looking ahead, what would you like the second year of Rajiv Menon Contemporary to accomplish? Are there new geographies, fair participations, institutional collaborations, or artist commissions you’re particularly excited about?

RM: I want to expand our global footprint commercially and institutionally. We hope to do more fairs, especially in Europe and Asia, and we will hopefully have artists represented in numerous global summits. This year is all about affirming that we have LA roots but global reach. I also want to bring more of the LA community to South Asia and would love to organize patron trips to Art Mumbai and India Art Fair. I built the gallery to be a bridge across cultures. This year, I want to help more people cross that bridge.