Updated May 2024
Amar Gallery was opened in January 2017 to show world-class post-war and contemporary art. We champion a number of historically overlooked and important female, LGBT+ and minority artists. We show these artists because we believe in their work. Nothing matters more than the art but the reality is many of these fine artists were overlooked because of their gender, sex or race. We hope to help correct this imbalance and give these artists the spotlight they deserve.
Amar Gallery’s Islington, London location was open between Jan 2017 - Jan 2019 after which the gallery ran nomadically. Amar Gallery reopened its doors in London’s Fitzrovia district in June 2024 with a solo exhibition of Dora Maar's works, the long-overlooked muse and lover of Picasso.
Amar Gallery founder, Amar Singh, started dealing art in 2014. He is a patron of the Tate, Whitechapel Gallery & India’s anti-trafficking organisation Shakti Vahini and India’s organisation We Power which provides dignified employment opportunities for women survivors of human trafficking.
Amar is also an activist who has focused his efforts on women's rights and LGBT rights in India. In 2022 the National Portrait Gallery, London acquired a portrait of Singh by artist Howard Tangye for their permanent collection. This portrait celebrates
diversity and LGBT+ allyship. In addition to his work in India, Amar has served as an advisor and ambassador to the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and Boston Strong.
In 2021 & 2022 Singh partnered with LVMH on a digital arts project to support the LGBT+ community. The art project Singh co-created, managed, and sold raised $240,000 across both years for the LGBT+ foundation (Mag Jeunes). From the money donated in 2021, the foundation was able to open a new, bigger centre in the heart of Paris and increase the number of interventions in schools (from 3,000 students in 2020 to 11,360 in 2021), to prevent LGBT phobia, and for the protection of LGBT+ youths. LVMH officially acknowledged their partnership with Singh in their annual reports of 2021 (page 38), 2022 (page 40-41) and their LGBT+ Pride Report (page 7).
Singh was an advocate for the abolishment of conversion therapy since 2020 and worked with human rights lawyers to research and advocate for the abolishment. In October 2023 the Supreme Court of India banned conversion therapy. Singh has set up a coalition of human rights lawyers & activists to enforce this ban across Indian states for the protection of LGBT+ communities & children.
Note: This site had not been updated since 2021 and due to an error by the web writer incorrectly stated that Singh had been an ambassador of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Singh was an ambassador at an event which benefitted Great Ormond Street Hospital, raising funds in memory of a childhood friend who passed away.
Singhs commitment to LGBT+, women’s rights & children’s rights remains unwavering
Howard Tangye
Portrait of Amar Singh
oil paint and pastel on Fabriano paper
39 3/8 in. x 29 1/2 in
2022
Permanent collection: National Portrait Gallery, London