About us

The pursuits, policies and principles of The Gallery of Gnani Arts will be persistent in facilitating dynamic and diversified avenues that bring about acquisition, appreciation, inspiration and knowledge pertaining to the arts, with curatorial integrity and market competence as a Singapore-based international entity.

Founded in early 2003, The Gallery of Gnani Arts has been a local and regional trend-setter within its area of research, curation and collection expertise – South Indian contemporary art by masters and international artists. Apart from curating and marketing its primary collection of art by masters and senior artists, the Gallery continues to launch the careers of a selective number of artists from Singapore (where it is based) and from other parts of the globe. Clients of The Gallery of Gnani Arts include the Singapore Art Museum of the National Heritage Board (Singapore) and numerous corporations and individuals in Europe and Southeast Asia.

In the Tamil language, the word ‘Gnani’, pronounced as ‘Niyani’, refers to one who is enlightened, spiritually or intellectually.

P. Gnana paints, sculpts and creates conceptual installations, as one of Singapore’s leading international artists. Indeed, he has obtained a highly-captivated audience in the Lion City and internationally for the aesthetic and conceptual niche that he has created for himself within the ever-competitive dynamics and economics of urban art-making. It is a fact that exemplary paintings by Gnana are in the collections of the former President of the Republic of Singapore; of the Singapore Art Museum of the National Heritage Board; and of many individuals and establishments on a global level. Gnana is a recipient of the LASALLE Scholarship of the LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore), from where he received his formal training in the art of painting.

He was granted the honour of being selected (in 2005) to undertake a project commissioned by Singapore’s Ascendas to create 14 large-scaled-paintings within an abstract expressionistic motivation for the International Tech Park in Chennai (India). In 2013, one of Gnana’s monumental larger-than-life sculptures under the ‘Incarnation’ series (made from recycled/found materials) was acquired by the National Parks Board (Singapore) to display at the Fort Canning Park, Singapore. In 2019, Gnana was honoured by Singapore’s pioneering Bhaskar’s Arts Academy with the prestigious title, ‘Chitra Kala Nipuna’.

Gnana is also an active committee member of the Sculpture Society (Singapore) and the Singapore Art Society. In addition, his paintings have been successfully auctioned by the Masterpiece Auction House in Southeast Asia. Gnana made his debut in New York in 2011. He continues to be a well-respected and prolific painter-sculptor in the international arena, and a mentor for many artists.

Singapore-born Vidhya Gouresan Nair has almost three decades of experience in museum research, art curation, art writing and Tamil-English translation work, within the area of Asian Aesthetics, and Modern and Contemporary Art and Heritage. She holds a Master of Arts in Asian Art Histories, jointly presented by the Open University of the United Kingdom and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. In addition, she has lectured on Art History, Art Theory and Professional Practice at the LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and has tutored Art History at the National University of Singapore, having had guest-lectured at the former Sotheby’s Institute of Art in Singapore. Vidhya has lectured and curated at international art fairs in Singapore, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, and has curated art/cultural exchange projects between Singapore and India, representing the Singapore Art Society and the Sculpture Society (Singapore). Since 2003, she has been the Curatorial Director and Co-Founder of Gnani Arts in Singapore, a leading art gallery that specialises in modern and contemporary Indian Art. From 2000 to 2006, Vidhya had researched for the South Asia Department of the Asian Civilisations Museum (National Heritage Board) and for the Singapore Philatelic Museum (National Heritage Board). She was indeed the first curator of the multimedia-based SGH Museum (situated at the historic Bowyer Block in the Outram Campus). In 2006, 2007 and 2015, she had contributed a monthly article to the Singapore Art Gallery Guide, under her column entitled ‘Aesthetic Awakening’. Vidhya was also invited to be the Guest Editor of the exclusive Indian Art issue (October 2010) of The Pocket Arts Guide in Singapore. She has edited and written for several catalogue publications (all of which have been accessioned into the collection of the National Library Board, Singapore). Her on-going research revolves around the sculptural tradition of South India, Asian Aesthetics, the dynamics of contemporary image-making and Carnatic Music as a therapeutic modality.