South Asia Now gathers 200 works of art, fashion and design made in the region and its diaspora today, in present rather than past tense, at V&A East.
V&A East Museum in Stratford opens South Asia Now on Saturday 24 April 2027, a show of more than 200 works of art, fashion and design made today.
Museums in Britain have shown South Asian art for 200 years, almost always in the past tense. Mughal miniatures, Company painting and textiles collected under empire were arranged as heritage.
South Asia Now gathers the art, fashion, architecture and design being made now across Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and their diaspora. Its argument is that influence runs outward from the region. The museum announced it with Tavish Gunasena’s Paddy Field Play, Lead The Way, made in 2022 for the Sri Lankan label AMESH.
V&A East opened in April 2026 with a debut exhibition on Black British music, and South Asia Now is its second show. Setting art beside fashion, architecture and product design is the V&A’s method.
The show opens here rather than at South Kensington. The new museum sits in one of the most South Asian parts of London, built to hold a different conversation from the one Cromwell Road has had since 1852.