Ravikumar Kashi was born in Bangalore in 1968. Kashi is a multifaceted artist with a great many social concerns, and a love for learning paired with constant need to grow as an artist moving from medium to medium until he finds a niche in which he is fully comfortable. All of these aspects of his nature are translated into visuals and feature in the imagery and iconography he employs in his paintings, installation work, prints and the several other avenues of expressive outpouring that he has explored.
Kashi received his Bachelor’s degree in painting at the College of Fine Arts in Bangalore at the age of twenty, but after that felt the need to go out and find the best place in the country to further his knowledge of the Fine Arts as well as aid him in his search for a place in the world of art that he could call his own. Rather than settling down to paint, the artist went on to receive his first Master’s degree in printmaking in 1990 at the MS University in Baroda, one of the best institutions in this field with a faculty and alumni body including the greatest printmakers in India. Still not satisfied, and wondering if fine art was not the only field in which he could further his creative needs, Kashi completed another Master’s degree, this time in English Literature, from the Mysore University in 1995.
Only exhibiting his work since 1991 in solo as well as group shows, Ravikumar Kashi has already six one-man exhibitions at galleries in Mumbai and Bangalore. He has participated in an Indian art show in Hong Kong, and has been honoured with two awards from the Karnataka Lalit Kala Academy as well as awards from his colleges and the Bombay Arts Society.
Kashi has participated in several painting and printmaking camps and workshops in various parts of the country. His works are part of prestigious public collections including those of the Lalit Kala Academy and the Modern Art Gallery, in New Delhi and the Department of Oriental Antiquities and the British Museum in Baroda. The artist also contributes columns and articles regularly to national dailies like ‘The Times of India’ and ‘The Deccan Herald’. He is currently serving as the co-editor of the Kannada art and cultural magazine, ‘Sanchaya’ and writes for other Kannada magazines. The artist lives and works in his native Bangalore and is a member of the visiting faculty team in the department of Architecture at the RVCE there.
