Rajan Krishnan

Rajan Krishnan[2][3] was a leading contemporary Indian artist who lived and worked in Kerala.

He hailed from Pallikkal, a small village near Cheruthuruthy in Thrissur district of Kerala. Born as the sixth of the seven offspring of Mandalaparambil Krishnan and Narayani, Rajan had his early education at the Government High School, Cheruthuruthy. Though he joined for BA Economics at NSS College, Ottapalam, he soon realised that his passion lay in pursuing the visual arts. Abandoning the Economics Course in 1989, without writing the University examinations, he joined the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1990. After completing Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA) from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1994, he joined the M.S. University, Baroda for Master in Fine Arts (MFA).[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.

Three years he lived in Thiruvananthapuram, working for a year as the Guest Lecturer at his alma mater, the College of Fine Arts Trivandrum. In 2000, he moved to Kochi and participating in many group shows by this time. He was also instrumental in organising many exhibitions and art-related events in Kochi during this period. In 2004, his first solo show was held at Kashi Art Gallery, a unique art space run by the late Anoop Skaria and his wife Dorrie Younger in Fort Kochi.

'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 terracota installation titled 'ORE' which was made up of a 10-foot tall assemblage of terracota 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 terracota 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 passed away on February 11, 2016.