New Delhi, 31 August 2026: The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) announces In-Rhythm, BICE LAZZARI and NASREEN MOHAMEDI, opening to the public at KNMA, New Delhi, on 9 September 2026, presented in partnership with the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in New Delhi and Archivio Bice Lazzari in Rome. The exhibition will be curated by Andrea Anastasio, Director, the Italian Cultural Institute in New Delhi and Roobina Karode, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, KNMA, assisted by Neha ‘Zooni’ Tickoo, Curator, KNMA. 

The exhibition brings together the works of Italian artist Bice Lazzari (1900-1981) and Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990), two artists who never met and, as far as records indicate, never encountered each other’s work. Yet across the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, both developed remarkably similar approaches to line, repetition, geometry and restraint. Both artists developed their mature practices under changing physical circumstances, yet their work resists being understood through biography alone. Instead, their precision can be seen as an expression of concentration, continuity and will. 

This conversation between the two artists does not suggest influence. Instead, it explores an unexpected artistic kinship: the way both artists used limitation not as a restriction, but as a means of creating clarity, rhythm and emotion. The exhibition also considers the relationship between artistic discipline and the body and explores their shared engagement with basic reductive forms as a way of thinking, resisting, and remaining free 

Lazzari gradually moved from the material richness of her earlier work towards lines, grids and subtle fields of colour. For both artists, the grid became more than a structure — it became a way of thinking and feeling. Small variations in line, spacing and rhythm prevent their works from becoming purely The exhibition culminates in a direct visual dialogue between works by the two artists, bringing together practices that evolved independently and were recognised internationally largely after their deaths. In-Rhythm ultimately asks a simple but profound question: How much feeling can a single line carry? 

Andrea Anastasio, Director, the Italian Cultural Institute and Roobina Karode, Chief Curator and Artistic Director, KNMA in New Delhi said: “The exhibition proposes an ethical kinship between the practices of two seminal women artists, Bice Lazzari and Nasreen Mohamedi, who use the constraint and the freedom abstraction offers towards shared resonances and rhythms.” 

Maria Isabella Barone, Director, Archivio Bice Lazzari adds, “We are deeply honoured to bring Bice Lazzari’s work to India and Asia for the first time, following her major retrospective at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome. The dialogue with Nasreen Mohamedi is particularly meaningful: two artists who never met, yet independently developed a profound and poetic language of line, rhythm, geometry and restraint. For the Archivio Bice Lazzari, this exhibition at KNMA marks an important new chapter in the international recognition of her work and in the dialogue between Italian and Indian art.” 

Notes to editor 

About Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) 

Founded in 2010, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is India’s leading private museum of modern and contemporary art from South Asia. A non-commercial, not-for-profit institution supported by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, KNMA presents exhibitions, commissions, performances, and public programmes that connect visual and performing arts with broad audiences. Through its wide-ranging learning and community initiatives, KNMA works to expand access to the arts and foster deeper engagement with modern and contemporary practices. KNMA is currently under construction on a new purpose-built campus in New Delhi that will significantly expand its exhibition, performance, and learning capacities. Conceived as an interdisciplinary cultural center, the new building will enable more ambitious artistic production, cross-disciplinary collaboration,and public programming, strengthening the museum’s role as a leading cultural platform in India and internationally. 

www.knma.org 

About Archivio Bice Lazzari 

Founded in 1981, Archivio Bice Lazzari is dedicated to preserving, studying, cataloguing, and promoting the work of Bice Lazzari (1906–1981). The Archive has catalogued more than 3,000 works and has undertaken extensive conservation and restoration activities to preserve and enhance the artist’s legacy. 

Its holdings document not only Lazzari’s paintings, but also her poetry, letters, critical writings, early works of applied art, books, records, and personal memories, offering a comprehensive account of her artistic and intellectual journey. 

In recent years, Lazzari’s work has been presented in major retrospective exhibitions in Italy, most recently at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome in 2026, presenting approximately 200 works. Her work is held in major museums and collections, including the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice, the Vatican Museums, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, The Phillips Collection and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. 

In 2026, the Catalogue Raisonné of Bice Lazzari will be published, representing an important milestone in the study and documentation of the artist’s oeuvre. 

The Archivio Bice Lazzari Association continues to promote the artist’s work in Italy and abroad through exhibitions, publications, institutional collaborations, and research, contributing to a deeper understanding and wider recognition of her work within the history of modern and contemporary art.