House of Santal, a new Manhattan gallery, spotlights South Asian design

House of Santal gallery New York — (Image credit: Joe Kramm)

There are many galleries specialized in collectible design in New York. Clustered in neighbourhoods like Chelsea and Tribeca, these established platforms tend to focus on American, European and, to a certain extent, Brazilian design but few have ever exhibited work from South Asia. Cue House of Santal, a just-opened gallery filling in the sizable gap and offering the city's ever-voracious collector base something fresh.

Taking over a sprawling seventh floor office space in Midtown Manhattan, looking out over the Radio City Music Hall marquee, the gallery showcases a diverse array of one-off and limited-edition furnishings in carefully-staged vignettes.

'Uncovering these talents and what contemporary South Asian design has to offer has been an obsession of mine for over six years,' says founder Raksha Sanikam, who left a career in finance to join her family's construction business as an interior designer. It was through a master's degree at the Pratt Institute that she fine-tuned her interest in collectible design, cultivating her own expertise and shrewd curatorial eye.

Within the gallery, a central 'courtyard' evoking traditional Indian gathering places is used to present a tightly curated sampling of works, hinting at what’s on view in the more intimate annexes. A deep burgundy is used throughout on the entrance and display platforms, a move that evokes the colour of santal, the rare sandalwood and the gallery’s namesake.

The inaugural exhibit highlights 13 diverse Indian talents. 'The idea is to showcase modern works that are mostly handmade using different Indian crafts in new ways,' Sanikam explains. 'We don’t want to be antiques dealers and will only exhibit contemporary pieces, many of which reinterpret furniture typologies common in the region.'

Many of the designs on view cleverly incorporate recognized materials and ornamental flourishes but with a nuanced touch. A good example is Nynika Jhaveri, Anikesa Dhing, and Thamshangpha (Merci) Maku’s Fuzzy Bottom design, a 'playful take' on the ubiquitous Naga bench. The trio refined the familiar form and added playful tufted seat mats that perfectly fit into carved crevices.

Upasana Jain’s SS Cross Chair also stands out. The low-slung settee’s polished steel frame and lattice webbing conjures the traditional craft of woven mats popular across India. An equally gleaming piece is Aashka Desai’s organically formed Wall Sculpture Drava, made out of Tencel yarns and carved high density fibreboard finished using the age-old silver foiling, a technique also deeply rooted in India’s artisanal heritage.

Though the first show only features Indian talents, subsequent exhibitions will highlight work by talents hailing from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal.

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Adrian Madlener is a Brussels-born, New York-based writer, curator, consultant, and artist. Over the past ten years, he’s held editorial positions at The Architect’s Newspaper, TLmag, and Frame magazine, while also contributing to publications such as Architectural Digest, Artnet News, Cultured, Domus, Dwell, Hypebeast, Galerie, and Metropolis. In 2023, He helped write the Vincenzo De Cotiis: Interiors monograph. With degrees from the Design Academy Eindhoven and Parsons School of Design, Adrian is particularly focused on topics that exemplify the best in craft-led experimentation and sustainability.