RIYAS KOMU

The notion of loss has been pivotal to Komu’s practice in the recent past. If with “Faith Accompli “ a show he had recently - he hopes to infiltrate a communal society and question its loss of compassion in Grass (2005) he questioned a loss that is often lost on the unperceptive city dweller.

 In Grass, Komu’s last solo exhibition in the city, the artist by way of 28 portraits explored the loss of adolescence endured by youth as they rushed in the direction of a livelihood. In a beautifully epiphanic scene in his seminal film Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows) Francois Truffaut showed us the gleeful faces of children at a puppet show. The 28 portraits that comprised Grass were reminiscent in some way of Truffaut’s children except their glee was tinged by a melancholy.

 In Keep Cooking (Blood Red Series 6) Komu presents us with crosses carved on crimson metallic boxes, which vaguely resemble shields, placed at the heart of the cross is a clay pot and in it lies the weight of rice. With this work Komu returns to the youth who he believes are being ‘cooked’ by societal machinations. He explains, “The Blood Red Series is symbolic of the destruction of youth – their aspirations and energies.”

 Komu concludes, “I have inherited my political outlook from my loved ones – the hallmark of which is to be secular and rational in a society and at the same time religious as an individual – and this has helped me locate my language which incorporates my concerns about the dispossessed and the forces that encourage them to take up arms.”

Bio Data

RIYAS KOMU  

Born 1971, Kerala, India.

B.F.A. & M.F.A. at Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai (1992 – 99). 

Solo Exhibitions 

2006     :  ’Faith Accompli’, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai.

2005     :  ’Grass’, The Guild, Mumbai

2003     :  ’Sarasu’ – photography show on Raja Ravi Verma Press, The Guild, Mumbai

2002     :  ’Unconditional’, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai;

                ‘Ambulance’, Renaissance Art Gallery, Bangalore.

Selected Exhibitions

2005   :  Are we like this only? Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi.

               Whose space is it anyway? Gallery Espace, New Delhi.

               Mannat Jali, Marine Drive, Mumbai.

               Public Art Project, Chemould gallery, Mumbai.

               WSF show, Brazil.

               Change of Address, The Guild art Gallery, Mumbai

 2004   :  V.M. Art Gallery in Karachi, Pakistan during VASL Residency.

               Anticipations, Mumbai Gallery, Mumbai.

               Bombay Boys, Palette Gallery, New Delhi.

               A New Mediatic Realism, Bayer ABS Gallery, Baroda.

               Generation I, Saffron Art Gallery, Mumbai.

               RED, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi.

               Mumbai x 17, Kashi Art Gallery, Cochin. 

2003   :  Crossing Generations: Diverge, 40 years of Gallery Chemould, NGMA, Mumbai.

               Highlights, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.

               2D/3D, Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong.

               Ideas And Images, NGMA, Mumbai.

               Art for Art / Switzerland Meets India, Kala Ghoda Festival , Mumbai  

2002   :  Ways of resisting 1992 – 2002, Sahmat / Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi

               Words and Images, the Guild / NGMA , Mumbai

               Creative space, Sakshi Gallery / Indian Habitat Center, New Delhi

               Crosscurrents, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.

               Asian Art Festival, Singapore

               Harmony Shows (2004 – 1999), Nehru center, Mumbai; New Delhi.

               Debt, The Guild, Mumbai.

               Tribute to Picasso, The Guild, Mumbai.

2001   :  The Human Factor, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.

               Engendering Images of women, The Guild, Mumbai.

               Excerpts from my diary, Fine Art Company, Mumbai.

2000  :  Mumbai Metaphor, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai

              Exile Longings, Lakeeren Art Gallery, Mumbai. 

              Memos of the New Millennium – Artists from the Moulting World, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 
              Mumbai

              Ideas and Images (Video Installation), NGMA, Mumbai.

1999  :  Critics choice, Ideas and Images, NGMA, Mumbai.

1998  :  ‘He used to believe that EMS planted coconut tree in Kerala’, Installation, Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai.

               Essays in time – kinetic sculptures (Audio – Visual Installation), Nehru Centre, Mumbai.

               Hebbar f oundation scholarship 1998 – 1999

               Lives and works between Kerala and Mumbai.

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