Sahana Ramakrishnan

My work is an exploration of a lonely dream: one in which a personal, female journey is guided and scrutinized by animal hybrids and mythical beasts. The women in my paintings look inward. They see the mutated remnants of old folk tales and religious mythology. These fragments primarily stem from Buddhist and Hindu tales, but they so often resound in other cultural imagery of other continents, both modern and historical. Symbols of animal-human hybrids, once used to instruct and guide one’s moral and spiritual path through the world now take on a life of their own. Just as these chimeras are transformed by the subjectivity of the narrative voice, they in turn possess their own agency and shape the psychic landscapes in which they dwell.

My images are echo chambers of already-fantastical mythologies, in which the distortion is turned up high. My perspective is a girlish one, aware of its own inherent masculinity, and the mischievousness and magic of childhood collides with themes of sexual exploration, violence, gender roles and power dynamics. Read Less

Sahana Ramakrishnan is a Brooklyn based artist who was born in India and educated in Singapore and the United States. She obtained her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, Sahana is also the recipient of the Yale/Norfolk Fellowship Award and the Florence Lief Grant from RISD. Her work has been exhibited in auctions and galleries in the U.S. such as Groundswell mural, 12 Gates Arts, Rabbithole Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, Front Art Space, among others. Read Less