riyas komu

Born in Kerala,1971 and completed his BFA and MFA from Sir J. J. School of art Mumbai by 1997. He is also a recipient of K.K. Hebbar Foundation Scholarship and Bombay Art Society Award, 1996 and Maharashtra State Art Prize 1995.

Riyas Komu graduated with Painting as his specialization. He has extended himself to sculpture, photography and video installations. He is not your typical brush and camera wielding artist. . He adapts images culled from the flow of the mass media, transporting them into the pictorial space of painting and its anterior histories of representation.

He paints pictures based on photographic references from the print and television media. His subjects are charged with significance bringing about a disturbance depicting an element of political disquiet. For Riyas Komu, art is a medium for social comment on the situations the world is facing today. His canvas has youthful and the immersion in urban iconography is perhaps most evident in his works. What is remarkable about the paintings of Riyas are the multiple media he uses. The works in oil are thick and over-layered, and this gives them more dimension and life. The figures and the backdrop spring out and hit you and there is no escaping from what first appears stark and simple and seems to get more on more complex as it grows on you.

About his video: He has a passion for making documentary films. The one he worked on last year had an unusual theme –“The politics of nostalgia and food.”  A video movie of eight minutes, it was shot on the streets and roadside restaurants of Mumbai. “The documentaries I make are an extension of my feelings and views, and they have similar themes, toughing life’s many facets”, says Riyas.

Solo Exhibitions: 2006: Systematic Citizen, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi.2006: Faith Accompli, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.2005: The Third Day, Lalit Kala Academy, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi presented by Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.2005: Grass, photography show, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai. 2003: Sarasu, photography show on Raja Ravi Verma Press, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai. 2002: UNCONDITIONAL, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai 2002 - 2003: AMBULANCE, Renaissance Art Gallery, Bangalore.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2007: Milan Museum show, curated by Daniella Polizolli. Frame/ Grid/ Room/Cell, curated by Gayatri Sinha, Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai. Group show at the Swarovski Museum. Mumbai Metronomes, Mumbai. 52 International Art Exhibition, the Venice Biennale. Art Amsterdam ‘Other’ inaugural show AICON Gallery, London. 2006: ‘Bronze’, sculpture show, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi Art on the Beach, Made by Indians, St Tropez by Gallery Enrico Navarra, Paris On Difference #2 (represented Korea), Wurtt. Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany.

 Riyas Komu lives and works in Mumbai.