Vijay Pichumani

Born in Tamil Nadu, India, 1987; lives and works in Chennai, India. Vijay started his artistic career with a BFA and an MFA from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai. His work is predominantly autobiographical and emerges from the sights he sees in the city and incidents from his personal experiences. Well known for his large wood blocks of owls and crows, his most recent works visualises sound through lines, rendering them a tactile quality that resonates with a collective frequency embedded in our personal narratives. By exploring the space between the lines, his work is at once macro in its vision and micro in its depth.

Having won the Best Outgoing Student Award in printmaking while in college (2009 & 2011), Vijay spent the first few years after graduation studying nature and the elements that are not visible to the naked eye. He we went on to win the Lalit Kala Akademi Scholarship Grant for the year 2012–2013; the Chandra Ilango Art Foundation Award, 2014, and the Arnawaz Vasudev Foundation Award, 2014. His almost meteoric rise saw a global recognition when he won the 56th National Award for Woodcut Print in 2015. He exhibited is first solo show titled Dot at Art Houz Gallery, Chennai, in 2016.

Selected group exhibitions include: The Printmaker, Art Houz Gallery, Chennai, 2014; Arts for All, New Delhi, 2014; The Emerging Canvas II – a Korea India Young Artists Exhibition, Seoul, 2013; A search, Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bengaluru, 2013; Sound of Chennai, Gallery Veda, Chennai, 2013; JFMAMJJASOND, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, 2013; South India Art Show, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, 2013; Aspirations, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, 2011; Indo-Russian Friendship Society, Russian Cultural Centre, Chennai, 2011; From India with Ink, Asa H Gordon Library, Savannah, USA, 2009 and 40/40, Savannah College of Art, Georgia and Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, 2007. Vijay Pichumani is represented by Art Houz Gallery, Chennai, India