Artists

Sukesan Kanka

Sukesan Kanka (born in 1981)

Sukesan graduated in sculpture from the Government College of Fine Art, Thrissur, Kerala in 2003. A recipient of Junior Art Fellowship from the Department of Culture and the Lalit Kala State Academy Award, he is a rare, young artist to work in pen and ink. An avid reader, the philosophies of Jacques Lacan and Sri Narayan Guru have had a deep impact on his psyche. His drawings are surrealistic, fascinating and imaginative; a visual filigree of nightmares, dreams, fantasies and unfulfilled desires that are reminiscent of the works of Albrecht Durer and Hieronymus Bosch. A goldsmith by profession, he demonstrates the same keen sense of observation and attention to detail in his works.

Sukesan has participated in The Harmony Art Show organized by the Reliance Ambani group, ‘Border Lines’ curated by Johny ML at the Shridharani Art Gallery and A4Arple show at Gallery Ragini. He has also exhibited at shows curated by Anubhav Nath at the Lalit KalaAcademy and the Ojas Art gallery in New Delhi in 2011-12 and in the Art Bengaluru Birla annual exhibition and the Mumbai Art Festival.Recently, he participated in a collateral show at Kochi MuzarisBiennale,as well as in several shows both in India and abroad.

Sukesan’s artworks, both paintings and drawings, have been profoundly inspired by the world of cinema, psychological drama and philosophy.  The theatrical images of cinema often form the central theme of his art compositions. Stories and moving images of the world cinema directors, such as Passolini, Ingmar Bergman, Tarkovsky, etc., have deeply impacted his style and concepts. Hence, one can very well call him an artist who conveys his stories and fantasies through his painting. Besides world cinema, even performance art, such as theatre, has played a key role in his artworks.

Besides the field of cinema and performance art, his artworks have been heavily influenced by nature and fantasy. Through the interplay of the themes related to nature and fantasy, he has created a number of surrealist paintings.