Founded in New York's East Village in 1982 and closed in 1988, Peter Nagy revived Nature Morte in New Delhi in 1997 as a commercial gallery and a curatorial experiment. In the early years, Nature Morte became synonymous in India with challenging and experimental forms of art; championing conceptual, lens-based, and installation genres and representing a generation of Indian artists who went on to international exposure. Today, Nature Morte is the leader in its field in India with increasing visibility around the world, representing many of the most accomplished contemporary artists working in India today, fostering the most promising new talents, and introducing the works of international artists to the country. The gallery now has two exhibition spaces in New Delhi: the main gallery is located at the Dhan Mill complex in the Chhatarpur area, in a 400-square-meter space on the ground floor at the center of the complex. In addition, a secondary gallery is in the neighborhood of Vasant Vihar, measuring 70-square-meters and used for smaller shows. The Vasant Vihar space also houses the gallery’s offices, private viewing rooms, and expanded storage. A permanent gallery space in Mumbai was opened in Colaba in 2024. The gallery has maintained multiple branches in various locations: Berlin (2008-2014), Calcutta (2006-2009), and at the Oberoi Gurgaon hotel (2011-2014) and is owned by its co-directors: Aparajita Jain and Peter Nagy.

The artists represented by the gallery are active throughout the world and their works have been exhibited in and acquired by many of the most prestigious museums: in New York (Museum of Modern Art, P.S. One, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim), London (Tate Modern, Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Courtauld Institute), Paris (Centre Pompidou, La Monnaie, Guimet, Palais de Tokyo), Tokyo (Mori Art Museum), Chicago (The Art Institute, Museum of Contemporary Art), Hong Kong (M+), Australia (National Gallery in Canberra, Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney), among many others.

Nature Morte was the first gallery from India to be included in the most important international art fairs (starting with The Armory Show in New York in 2005) and has participated in Art Basel, Fiac Paris, Art Basel Miami Beach, Paris Photo, Art Dubai, Tokyo Art Fair, Art Basel Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, and Frieze London and New York, among others. Nature Morte has also organized projects and exhibitions with international artists coming to India and combining their works with those of Indian artists to foster cross-cultural communications. In addition to its own programming, Nature Morte has collaborated with institutions in India such as the British Council, the Alliance Francais, the Sanskriti Foundation, the India International Centre, the India Habitat Centre, Max Mueller Bhavan, the Italian Cultural Center, Khoj International Artists Association, the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, and the National Gallery of Modern Art in both New Delhi and Mumbai.