Review of UNRULY SYNTAX, a solo show by Ravi Kumar Kashi at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore. (4th December 2021 to 22nd Jan 2022

Artist Ravi Kumar Kashi holds a BFA in Painting from Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore, MFA in Print Making from MSU, Baroda, MA in English from Mysore University and been a recipient of various grants and residencies across the globe. He is also an art writer, tutor and art pedagogue. 

A panoramic look at Ravi Kumar Kashi’s works gives us an idea of his deep interest in history, cultural studies, literature, anthropology and his experimental tendencies with materials. He has also experimented with varying format of presentations like that of paper pulp books, diaries, pulp torsos, collages, installations etc with historic anecdotes and personal experiences. More than three decades of his art practice by and large cling on to what WJT Mitchel often address as a “disciplinary relaxation” and he seem to reflect belongingness to an era of transition from fine art to autonomous image/visual culture readings.

Unruly Syntax is a series of paintings created by Kashi during the pandemic from images that inspired him while strolling in close proximity of his home. This exhibit is a series where we re-encounter with his painterly efficiencies as well as carries a few residues and mnemotechny of last one decade of his works. These works echo his archival tendencies and an individual journal of otherwise public and ubiquitous yet discreet elements in a city. It directly associates to the observations made in his 2019 published book..

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