“Myths, to me, are maps,” said artist Sahana Ramakrishnan, regarding her exhibition with Fridman Gallery titled “An Ocean of Time.” Her vibrant paintings, layered with depths of details, are inspired by mythologies and memories alike. While the artist has been represented by the gallery for several years, this is her first solo show with the gallery.
Ramakrishnan was born in Mumbai, India, grew up in Singapore, and currently lives in New Jersey. She traveled frequently with her family growing up, and still continues to do so, a source of comfort and inspiration for the artist. Earlier this year, however, while recovering from a surgery, Ramakrishnan was stuck at home with nowhere to travel to. This is when, she described, “a lot of childhood memories swept up at me, a lot of thinking about moments where I had a connection with the non-human. Whether an animal, the ocean, or a tree.”
In An Ocean of Time, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Song of the Naga, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
The Blessed Virgin, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
A World of Love, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Echo, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
The Earth at Night (solar storm), 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Portrait of a Tree, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Offering, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Jackal Brings a New Era, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
The Messenger, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Self portrait, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Surgery to Make You a Better Person, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
The animals in her paintings feel mythological, with the gravitas of magical beings. She depicts tigers that are small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and crows carrying babies. Her most vivid memories, she said, are experiences of being around animals; the gold-ringed cat snake that her flashlight illuminated in Singapore’s MacRitchie Reservoir, the pelican she followed from her kayak in awe, the leopard trail in Kenya that she got lost in with a new friend. These are moments Ramakrishnan expresses in her paintings—moments of fearless curiosity.
Ramakrishnan has always read myths from all around the world, but while thinking about this exhibition she also started to read scientific texts such as A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. It made her think about her perception of time and the gravity of her own memories. “Things still live by their echoes in places, so I’m one of those echoes,” she explained: In other words, her memories live on just through her own existence. The painting In An Ocean of Time (2023) started as a still life of a shedded snake skin, along with flower petals she collected, a tableau that is transformed into a pastel spiral of sunset hues. In Buddhism, the spiral has many symbolic meanings: It references the center of the universe and the cycles of life, such as birth, growth, death, and rebirth.
Cry Baby in the Deep, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
The Closing, 2023
Sahana Ramakrishnan
Fridman Gallery
Elsewhere, in Cry Baby in the Deep (2023), a human figure cries underwater. Her feet burrow in the sand, and the tears that flow from her swollen face disperse in speckled blue and orange fireworks. Two small mermaid-like creatures surround the crying human—one seems to be offering to help and one seems to be scolding. In this work, Ramakrishnan offers a glimpse into the feeling of being underwater in the vast ocean, the frustration she carried with her when she wasn’t able to have new experiences, stuck inside and recovering. But at the same time, the beauty she found becomes mystical in the form of these creatures. As an artist, she has transformed her own memories into mythologies that viewers can gaze upon with the same bewildering wonder she herself experienced.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/EeS8I0U
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