Rajan Krishnan

Last updated

Rajan Krishnan
രാജൻ കൃഷ്ണൻ
Born
Rajan Krishnan

(1968-12-14)14 December 1968
Died11 February 2016(2016-02-11) (aged 47) [1]
NationalityIndian
Alma mater NSS College, Ottapalam in 1989 & College of Fine Arts Trivandrum in 1990
Occupation(s)Artist, Painter
SpouseRenu Ramanath
ParentKrishnan & Narayani
Awards Kerala Lalithakala Akademi in 2010

Rajan Krishnan was a modern Indian artist based in Kerala. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and background

Rajan, hailing from Pallikkal - a small village near Cheruthuruthy in the Thrissur district of Kerala - was born as the sixth of seven children of Mandalaparambil Krishnan and Narayani. He received his early education at the Government High School in Cheruthuruthy, and enrolled for BA Economics at NSS College, Ottapalam. However, his passion lay in the visual arts, and thus he dropped out of the Economics course in 1989 and joined the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1990. After completing his BFA from the same college in 1994, he went on to pursue an MFA at the M.S. University, Baroda. [4] [5] [6] [7] In 1996, after completing MFA, Rajan returned to his home State, opting to work from there instead of migrating to large metros of India like many of his contemporaries were doing at that time. [8]

Career

For three years, Rajan lived and worked in Thiruvananthapuram - serving as a Guest Lecturer at his alma mater, the College of Fine Arts Trivandrum. In 2000, he relocated to Kochi, participating in group shows and organising exhibitions and art-related events in the city. Finally, in 2004, his first solo show was held at Kashi Art Gallery, founded by the late Anoop Skaria and Dorrie Younger in Fort Kochi. [9] [10]

'En route,' his solo show presented by Bombay Art Gallery of Aditya Ruia, in Mumbai made Rajan an important figure in the national art scene of India. Soon afterwards, he started working with Bodhi Art, who presented his works at Art Singapore in 2006. Next year was held his first international solo, 'Memoir' at Bodhi Art, New York. It was followed by 'Ore / Substances of Earth - I,' a major show in which he presented a huge terracotta installation titled 'ORE' which was made up of a 10-foot tall assemblage of terracotta figurines made by a large number of people as part of a community art project. It was accompanied by paintings as well as a metal installation titled 'Wing,' and a video installation, 'Making of Ore.'

In 2008, he presented a portion of the terracotta figurines in another solo show, 'RE-VISIT' held at OED Basement, by Gallery OED in Ernakulam. 'Four Paintings,' another solo was held at Bombay Art Gallery in Mumbai in 2009. His last solo show was 'Ancestry,' held at Aicon Gallery, New York in 2011.

He died on February 11, 2016.

Solo shows

Art fairs

Curated shows

Participated shows

Related Research Articles

Jayasri Burman is a contemporary painter and sculptor from India. She is based in New Delhi, India. She studied at the Kala Bhavan in Shantiniketan from 1977 to 1979, and at the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, where she completed a Master of Arts in Painting. She took a Graphic Art Workshop conducted by Paul Lingren and a formal course on Print making in Paris from Monsieur Ceizerzi. She is a member of an extended family of eminent artists: her husband is painter and sculptor Paresh Maity, painter and sculptor uncle Sakti Burman and son, photographer Rid Burman.

Paresh Maity is an Indian painter. He is a prolific painter in a short career span. In 2014, Government of India conferred upon him its fourth-highest civilian award the Padma Shri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akbar Padamsee</span> Indian artist (1928–2020)

Akbar Padamsee was an Indian artist and painter, considered one of the pioneers in modern Indian painting along with S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza and M.F. Husain. Over the years he also worked with various mediums from oil painting, plastic emulsion, water colour, sculpture, printmaking, to computer graphics, and photography. In addition, he worked as a film maker, sculptor, photographer, engraver, and lithographer. Today his paintings are among the most valued by modern Indian artists. His painting Reclining Nude was sold for US$1,426,500 at Sotheby's in New York on 25 March 2011.

T. V. Santhosh is an Indian artist based in Mumbai. He obtained his graduate degree in painting from Santiniketan and master's degree in Sculpture from M.S. University, Baroda. Santhosh has acquired a major presence in the Indian and International art scene over the last decade with several successful shows with international galleries and museums. His earlier works tackle global issues of war and terrorism and its representation and manipulation by politics and the media. Santhosh's sculptural installation "Houndingdown" was exhibited in Frank Cohen collection ‘Passage to India’. Some of his prominent museum shows are ‘Aftershock’ at Sainsbury Centre, Contemporary Art Norwich, England in 2007 and ’Continuity and Transformation’ show promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy. He lives and works in Mumbai.

Hiran Mitra is an artist based in Kolkata. He left his ancestral country home in Kharagpur to study Fine Art in the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata at the age of 14. His paintings are energetic abstract gestural paintings with the choreography of the human body observed from folk dance having influenced his recent calligraphic forms. He has contributed significantly to the visual stimulus in eastern Indian films, television, theatre and literature since in the 1980s [. He is also known to have defined a benchmark for book cover design for contemporary Bengali literature. His paintings are statements on the human condition and the twilight zones of reality and time. Bold brush strokes, layered washes and sprays and unconventional use of acrylic and industrial paints characterize his paintings. He is part of the Open Window Artist group and has been part of the Painters 80 Artist group in Kolkata.

N. N. Rimzon is an Indian artist known primarily for his symbolic and enigmatic sculptures. His metal, fiberglass and stone sculptures have won him international acclaim, though in recent years his drawings have gained recognition.

Haku Vajubhai Shah was an Indian painter, Gandhian, cultural anthropologist and author on folk and tribal art and culture. His art belonged to the Baroda Group and his works are considered in the line of artists who brought themes of folk or tribal art to Indian art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chittrovanu Mazumdar</span>

Chittrovanu Mazumdar is a contemporary Indian artist of Bengali-Indian and French descent. Mazumdar has been described as a "conceptual artist" and a "post-structuralist" while some critics consider it difficult to classify his oeuvre into a single artistic tradition or even into any consistent genre of his own. Mazudmar has referred to himself as an "expressionist painter" but has also said he generally prefers not to use "a particular word to qualify" his work because it comprises different kinds of media and forms, and that art is more interesting when fully given over to the viewer's own experience rather than constrained by the prescriptive power of labels.

The 2012 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 5 or the IPL 2012 or the DLF IPL 2012, was the fifth season of the Indian Premier League, initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007 with the first season played in 2008. The tournament began on 4 April and ended on 27 May 2012. Kolkata Knight Riders were the winning team, beating defending champions Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in the final. This season the number of teams in the league went from ten to nine with the termination of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riyas Komu</span> Indian Multimedia artist

Riyas Komu is an Indian multimedia artist and curator based in Mumbai. He has invested his time in art education and developing art infrastructure in India. Komu's works are inspired by social conflicts and political movements and topics like migration and displacement. His hyper-realistic oil portraits of people resemble socialist-realist propaganda art, with one of his portraits titled Why Everybody should Look Like Mao.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. M. Madhusudhanan</span> Indian film maker and artist

Madhusudhanan is an Indian film maker and artist, also known as K. M. Madhusudhanan. His debut feature film, Bioscope has received many awards. He is working with different media in art, including sculpture, printmaking installation art and film.

Somenath Maity is an Indian artist known for his oil paintings of urban landscapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kochi-Muziris Biennale</span> International art exhibition held in Indian city, Kochi

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest art exhibition in the country and the biggest contemporary art festival in Asia. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation with support from the Government of Kerala. The concept of Kochi-Muziris Biennale was ideated and executed by Dr. Venu Vasudevan IAS, who was the Government of Kerala's cultural secretary. The exhibition is set in spaces across Kochi, with shows being held in existing galleries, halls, and site-specific installations in public spaces, heritage buildings and vacant structures.

Gayatri Sinha is an art critic and curator based in New Delhi, India. Her primary areas of research are around the structures of gender and iconography, media, economics and social history. She founded Critical Collective, a forum for thinking about conceptual frames within art history and practice in contemporary India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. Siva Kumar</span> Contemporary Indian art historian art-critic and curator (born 1956)

Raman Siva Kumar, known as R. Siva Kumar, is an Indian contemporary art historian, art critic, and curator. His major research has been in the area of early Indian modernism with special focus on the Santiniketan School. He has written several important books, lectured widely on modern Indian art and contributed articles to prestigious international projects such as the Art Journal, Grove Art Online or The Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samir Mondal</span> Indian watercolour painter (born 1952)

Samir Mondal is an Indian watercolour painter. His main contribution to Indian art of modern times is a continual revival of watercolour painting.

Chintan Upadhyay is an Indian artist. He was awarded the Charles Wallace Foundation Award for Residency in Bristol, UK in 2012. He began as a painter, but now creates sculptures and installations, the surfaces of which he paints.

Owais Husain is an Indian multi-media artist, painter and filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaheen Merali</span> Tanzanian artist, writer & critic

Shaheen Merali is a Tanzanian writer, curator, critic, and artist. Merali began his artistic practice in the 1980s committing to social, political and personal narratives. As his practice evolved, he focused on functions of a curator, lecturer and critic and has now moved into the sphere of writing. Previously he was a key lecturer at Central Saint Martins School of Art (1995-2003), a visiting lecturer and researcher at the University of Westminster (1997-2003) and the Head of the Department of Exhibition, Film and New Media at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2003-2008). A regular speaker on ideas of contemporary exhibition making internationally, in 2018 he was the keynote speaker at the International Art Gallery of the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee Arts Festival, Lisbon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oindrilla Maity Surai</span> Indian art curator and critic

Oindrilla Maity Surai is an Indian independent curator, art critic, and pedagogue based in Kolkata. She has curated exhibitions beyond the paradigms of the commercial gallery. Her major contributions lie in her converting the exhibition spaces as sites of resistances in the post-Covid 19 era, following the country's political conditions and experimenting with the anatomy of what may be termed as the biennale mode of exhibition making in the city's public sphere. She has also participated in several community- based art projects as an artist.

References

  1. "രാജന്‍ എം കൃഷ്ണന്‍ അന്തരിച്ചു". Deshabhimani.
  2. S, Priyadershini (18 February 2016). "A tribute to artist Rajan M. Krishnan". The Hindu via www.thehindu.com.
  3. "The land as inspiration". The New Indian Express. 20 January 2018.
  4. "Let the art speak for itself". The New Indian Express. 5 April 2018.
  5. https://thehinduimages.com/details-page.php?id=160633799&highlights=RASHMIKA%20RAJAN [ bare URL ]
  6. "OED Gallery's upcoming exhibition pays tribute to artist Rajan Krishnan". www.indulgexpress.com. 8 December 2017.
  7. Nagarajan, Saraswathy (27 May 2011). "The art route". The Hindu via www.thehindu.com.
  8. "Bengaluru's new Museum of Art and Photography opens with an exhilarating show". Financial Times. 22 February 2023.
  9. Menon, Anasuya (14 April 2022). "'Sketchbook' offers a glimpse into artists' inner world". The Hindu.
  10. "OED Gallery's upcoming exhibition pays tribute to artist Rajan Krishnan". www.indulgexpress.com.