New Talk Art!!! We meet artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran on the eve of his new solo show in Mumbai, India titled The Mud and The Rainbow.
Encountering the sculptures of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is, at first, bewildering and unsettling, so multifarious and polymorphous are his references. Yet there is a logic to these works, a reasoning which draws the artist to his conclusions, such that we might use the term Syllogisms to understand his plastic experiments. Ramesh is quick to site the synthesis of Hindu, Buddhist and Christian iconographies, which are the inheritance of his Sri Lankan ancestry, to be found in his work, but one can just as quickly recognize affinities with animist African deities, Meso-American idols, and Polynesian effigies. Ramesh claims contradictory identities for his figures: guardians, warriors, goddesses, demons, jokers, and monsters. These multi-headed, multi-limbed, multi-orificed beings fuse elements culled from every possible living creature, both ambulatory and stationary, to perform the contradictory functions of welcoming in and frightening away simultaneously.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is a Sri-Lankan born contemporary artist who explores global histories and languages of figurative representation. He has specific interests in South Asian forms and imagery as well as politics relating to idolatry, the monument, gender, race and religiosity. While he is best known for his irreverent approach to ceramic media, his material vernacular is broad. He has worked imaginatively with sculptural materials including bronze, concrete, neon, LED and fibreglass, as well as conventional painting and printmaking materials and techniques.
His signature neo-expressionist and polychromatic work has been presented in museums, festivals, multi-art centres and the public domain. This has included significant presentations at the National Gallery of Australia, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Dhaka Art Summit, Art Basel Hong Kong and Dark Mofo festival. His first major permanent public artwork was recently installed at the entrance of the new HOTA gallery.
Recently, The Art Gallery of New South Wales acquired his monumental work ‘Avatar Towers’. This is an installation of 70 ceramic and bronze figures originally presented in the gallery’s historic vestibule. His work is held in various other public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, The Ian Potter Museum of Art and the Shepparton Art Museum.
Ramesh is represented by Sullivan + Strumpf, Sydney + Singapore and Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai. His new solo show is available to view online:
https://jhavericontemporary.com/exhibitions/the-mud-and-the-rainbow
Follow Ramesh on Instagram: @Rams_Deep69 and his gallery @JhaveriContemporary
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