Surendran Nair

Certain questions like, ‘why do we do, what we do, the way we do it’…seems to play a directive principle in shaping my art practice at a fundamental level. — Surendran Nair Surendran Nair was born in 1956 in Kerala, into an agrarian family. His schooling occurred in Onakkoor and Piravom, small villages in Ernakulum district. The youngest of five surviving siblings, he lost his father at age two, and was brought up by his mother and siblings. As a child he loved to draw. However the most impactful influences were stories told to him in his childhood and teenage years by relatives and neighbors, recounting tales from puranic myths, legends, folk tales – and narratives filled with animal characters, often dark in nature, of ogres, giants, goblins and malevolent spirits threatening. He attributes his interest in mythology to these early experiences. Nair enrolled into a science program in 1975. He later joined the first batch of students at the College of Fine Arts Trivandrum 1975-1981 for a diploma in painting and Bachelor of Fine Arts (painting) 1981-1982. He was involved in the student agitation for reforms in educational practices at the Trivandrum College of art in 1977-1979, years spent in individual endeavor and peer group interaction via exposure to art periodical, cinema, literature and political enquiry and cultural theory. These seminal years saw Nair articulating his political thinking and exploring a pictorial language that is today viewed to be a major influence on subsequent generations of artists from Kerala. He joined the department of printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts Baroda for his post diploma 1983-1986. His entire portfolio of college works comprising of charcoal, ink and pastel drawings, and lithographs, linocuts, woodcuts, etchings and mono prints are now in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and the DAG permanent collection. His paintings come from layered references- literary and mythological, yet transpose to situate his enquires of a world of shifting orders through his own theatrical space in which the painted actors mediate a dialogue between the artist and viewer. From 1986 till 2022 he has been presented in 17 solo show, 85 group shows and 14 art fairs. His works are in museums and private collections in India and abroad. Nair currently lives and works in Baroda with his partner, artist Rekha Rodwittiya.