Keerthana S Kumar

Keerthana S Kumar is a self-taught figurative painter based in Bangalore, India, whose work reinterprets art historical traditions and archetypes through a contemporary, narrative-driven lens. Drawing from historical painting, sculpture, popular culture, and everyday visual fragments, she constructs vivid scenes that oscillate between reality and fiction, placing personal experience within broader cultural frameworks.

Her engagement with history is neither nostalgic nor reverential; instead, it becomes material to be reworked and expanded. Her compositions function as layered sites of storytelling, where expressive figures inhabit stylized, graphic environments. A defining element of her work is the depiction of figures with multiple hands, inspired by mythological iconography. Each gesture contributes to the narrative, allowing her to articulate the simultaneity of emotion, action, and thought within a single frame. Carefully constructed to hold multiple moments at once, her works invite viewers to uncover new layers of meaning with each viewing.

Her process begins with digital collage, combining found imagery, personal photographs, and objects from daily life into dynamic compositions. These are further refined through digital drawing, resulting in signature sketches that guide the final paintings. While digital tools play an integral role, painting remains her primary medium, through which she builds texture, depth, and nuanced transitions of colour using brushes and palette knives.

Colour functions as an emotional and conceptual language in her work. Saturated hues and stark contrasts challenge conventional associations tied to identity, while flattened forms lend her compositions a distinctly graphic quality.

Born and raised in India, Keerthana draws inspiration from the intersection of culture, consumerism, and global perspectives. Her travels to over thirty plus countries have significantly shaped her visual language, with experiences of local food, thrift stores, and antique markets continually informing her work and introducing a sense of discovery into her compositions.

b. 1993, Chennai, India

Lives and works in Bangalore, India

Years active : 2022 - Present

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 First Supper – Dubai, UAE

2023 World Art Dubai – Dubai, UAE

2022 Keeping It Real – Dubai, UAE

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Lille Art Up! ArtsRange Gallery, Lille, France

2026 Easter Exhibition, Artcatto Galley, Loulé, Portugal

2025 Young Masters: For The Love of Art History, Cynthia Corbett Gallery – London, UK

2025 À Gogo III, Mash Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2025 Forever After, Mash Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2025 FADA, Art Meets Technology in Urban Life, Dubai Design District, Dubai, UAE

2024 World Art Dubai – Dubai, UAE

2022 World Art Dubai – Dubai, UAE

2022 India Art Festival – Bangalore, India

2022 Khushii Whatsapp Artloot – India Online

2022 Trio, PXP Contemporary Art Gallery – Online

SELECT COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS

2024 First Supper, Private collection of 14 paintings – Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown – Dubai, UAE

2024 Chanel No.5, Private collection - Chanel India HQ– New Delhi, India