G R Iranna

The works of G R Iranna are the portraits of the inner landscapes that transcend the boundaries of time and space, at the same time imbibing its spirit. Born in 1970, at Sindgi, in Bijapur District of Karnataka, he started painting professionally at the tender age of ten years.

Born in an agrarian family and brought up in the environs of a humble ashram, Iranna, who hails from the family of Shaivaite believers, studied in a Gurukul and lived in an ashram for almost seven years in the young age. Both these experiences influenced his creative thinking deeply. 

Those who see his paintings can easily make out the farming and fertility images present in his works, where the sensuousness of the earth’s body bathed in golden sunlight is a recurrent feel. The fertility images are linked to the Shiva-Shakti and the linga-yoni concepts of Indian mythology, which add energy and vigour to his compositions. 

But when he depicts these images in his compositions, we can feel that he is not just portraying them but personalising them with great vigour. He always updates his visual vocabulary through questioning himself and his surroundings, thus giving a socio-political dimension to his creations. Iranna is very much concerned about power politics, violence, displacement and the issues that affect the peaceful existence of the humanity. While his works were more figurative depictions earlier, in recent years, his renderings have moved to abstractions. “But the work is not divorced from the human condition,” says the artist who uses the idealistic, representative and modernist language of Indian contemporary art.

It is observed that many of Iranna’s paintings reflect pain as an abstract force that is translated visually in bruised textures. It can be seen that the Gurukul education and the life in an ashram as a young boy helped him to form a strong connection to his cultural roots, which enters his work alongside his exploration of the antitheses of inherent dualities of the world. In many of his works the influence of Buddhist art is also evident.

He loves to experiment with different mediums. While he began painting oil on canvases, he later developed his range of medium, and at one point he started using tarpaulin instead of canvas. These mediums enhance the texture and dimension of the works on canvas and installations, as part of the exploration into the realms of the unknown. His paintings are all heavily worked upon, built up with a multitude of layers.

Through his visual interventions, he also shows how we have failed to articulate a language to explain our origins, our destination and our sense of purpose in the collective solitude of humankind. Even when we are together, we stand alone in tackling these questions that concern each of us and define the nature of our mortality.

It was in 2019 that Iranna did a huge, wall-based installation, ‘Naavu’ (We Together), comprising over 600 padukas (wooden slippers), as part of the India Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, which caught international attention. The installation, which was a revisit of the historic Dandi March of 1930, resembled an ocean of protestors marching ahead. 

His works are in the collections in the prestigious collections of many institutions in India and abroad, including National Gallery of Modern Art - New Delhi, David Robert Collection - London, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Rajshree Pathy Collection, Singapore Art Museum, Chester & David Hurwitz – USA, SAM Museum – USA, Bharat Bhavan – Bhopal and Lalit Kala Akademi New Delhi. Also (India). Also, his works have found place in the personal collections in India, Germany, Holland, France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, UK and other countries.

Iranna lives and works in New Delhi.

Education

1999: Studied at Wimbledon School of Art, London

1994: MFA Painting, College of Art, Delhi

1992: BFA Painting, College of Visual Art, Gulbarga

ABPF Foundation, Signature Art Prize, Singapore Art Museum Jury Award in 2008.

Artist of the Year Award, Harmony Show, Mumbai in 2004.

KK Hebbar Foundation Award in 2002.

State Award, Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi, Bangalore in 2001.

40th National Academy Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1997.

50 years of Art in Independent India, All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society Award, Delhi in 1997.

In Search of Talent, MF Husain and Ram Kumar Selection Award, Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi in 1993.

Bansi Parimu Memorial Committee, New Delhi in 1993.

Delhi College of Art, New Delhi in 1993.

College of Visual Art, Gulbarga (India) in 1991-92.

All India Exhibition, Mysore Dasara, Mysore (India) in 1991.

All India Fine Arts Exhibition, Gadag (India) in 1991.

4th All India Exhibition South Central Zone Cultural Centre, Nagpur (India) in 1990.