K.R. SANTHANA KRISHNAN

Bio

Artist K. R. Santhana Krishnan is a Chennai based artist from India. He completed his bachelor’s degree in College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam and his masters in College of Fine Arts, Chennai.

His art practice revolves around the entrance of a home – the Door. The concept of creating doors was to capture the slowly disappearing architecture and significance of traditional home entrances. The artist believes in treasuring the heritage and culture that his ancestors built. What speaks more about the culture and heritage of the people than the place that they live in, he asks. The home speaks about the past, present and future of a family and the most vital aspect to any home is the front door.

He paints wooden, soot-covered, kumkum and turmeric marking covered doors because they fascinate him more in comparison to the modern state of the art technology-driven doors. He believes that each door has a story to narrate, and there will always be people interested in that story.

“Some of my doors open into an interior with tulsi tharas in the inner courtyards and some of my closed doors with a huge lock show faded house numbers and painted advertisements. Through this, I wish to depict the lives of the people living behind these doors. Most of my doors are not from urbanized cities but from the rural homes that I grew up watching every day. I know and believe that a door speaks volumes. It can either be kept wide open, inviting you in or it can be closed and keep a million secrets locked up. All it takes is a door to say the words a man cannot.”