KYNKYNY
Contemporary Indian Art since 2004
KYNKYNY was founded in 2004 by the husband and wife duo Namu Kini and Vivek Radhakrishnan. With an aim to make the fascinating world of Indian art more accessible to the world, KYNKYNY supports emerging and established artists – offering a highly curated selection of original and authentic artworks. Since its inception, KYNKYNY has worked with over 300 artists from all over India and has shipped its art across the globe; from Dubai and Lithuania to Australia and Brazil.
CURRENT EXHIBITION
SACRED EARTH
Avijit Dutta I Siddharth Shingade I G Subramanian
Avijit Dutta
Siddharth Shingade
G Subramanian
A sense of tantalising mystery and paradox permeates KYNKYNY’s latest exhibition, which bridges the celestial with the very human. Featuring three prominent, contemporary artists – Avijit Dutta, G Subramanian and Siddharth Shingade – the mixed media works invite us to view the familiar in unexpected ways, as the divine meshes with the ordinary, and the everyday becomes sacred. In this exhibition on view from September 22 to October 31, mighty gods like Krishna and Hanuman are fashioned out of colourful magazine cuttings, natural landscapes collide with inner worlds, and village settings and people, are animated with a mythical, otherworldly beauty. The effect is transportive and atmospheric, as the multifaceted art works ebb and flow across genres and moods, from abstraction and fantasy to the modern and playful. Brimming with myths, folklore and contemporary truths, ‘Sacred Earth’ offers much-needed respite from the harshness of modern life.
Avijit Dutta
AVIJIT DUTTA – While an array of intriguing metaphorical objects and humans are often depicted in Avijit Dutta’s dreamlike artworks, it is the natural world which plays chief protagonist. Nature is a mirror for the Kolkata-based artist’s inner world – his inner journeys and moods are intuitively expressed through wildernesses, horses, butterflies, deer and seascapes. Dutta’s sensitive and psychologically astute art (consisting mainly of watercolours, tempera and acrylics), seeks to place humans within the larger cosmos of nature and spirit, rather than as separate, disconnected entities. Like visual poems, the canvasses are flowing and Zen-like, and immersed in a soft, muted palette and minimalist settings. Beyond the natural world, the artist also seeks to probe the nature of memories and different states of the human psyche.
SIDDHARTH SHINGADE
SIDDHARTH SHINGADE – From the landscapes and people of Marathwada, one of India’s most drought prone regions, to lyrical, everyday village scenes, Siddharth Shingade’s art reflects a deep connection to the land and the wisdom and simplicity of people who live off it. Rooted to the earth, the Maharashtra-based artist’s acrylics on canvas showcase the strong and resilient men and women of rural India. Rich in mood and symbols, and layered in diaphanous textures, the wistful characters seem part-earthly and part-mythical. In his initial years as an artist, Shingade’s works were more stark and sombre. But his art has undergone a metamorphosis, since. Luxuriant golden hues and bright tones now dominate, and the exploration of new themes like nature, divinity and mythical characters, add new dimensions to his body of art.
G SUBRAMANIAN
G SUBRAMANIAN – The blissful, free-spirited child takes centrestage in G Subramanian’s heartwarming, multi-layered collages. In a delightfully unique twist, powerful gods and goddesses like Krishna, Hanuman, Lakshmi and Saraswati, are cast as playful, childlike beings, embodying pureness, simplicity and spirit. Braided, free-spirited girls, who are another regular feature in the Bangalore-based artist’s works, are inspired by his daughter, Surya, who he lost to cancer. Beyond their quirky charms, Subramanian’s art hides a wealth of mythological and folk influences and spiritual symbolism. ‘Subra’, as he is affably called, grew up in a village in coastal Tamil Nadu, in the company of folk performers. His father was a stage artist, and exposed his son to folk theatre, make up, costumes and stage craft, at an early age. These indigenous influences are a mainstay in his works, which are then filtered through his own artistic vision and reimagined with contemporary sensibilities. A master of the collage medium, he typically uses magazine cuttings, further layering them with acrylic paints and ink washes in vibrant colours, to make brilliantly textured art.
