Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world.
Why you should listen to him:
Raghava KK began his career in art as a newspaper cartoonist, and the cartoonist’s bold line -- and dead-on eye for truth -- still powers his art. His work spans painting, sculpture, installation, film and performance, always linked by his challenging opinions on identity, conformity, gender, celebrity, ceremony. (He even views his lavish Indian wedding as a piece of performance art.)
His early work as a painter made a complete break with his cartoon career -- he painted watercolors on canvas using only his hands and feet. Since then, his work has grown to knit together aesthetics from both worlds, as collage and complication play against flat color and precise lines. He shows in galleries and performance spaces around the world. Among his latest work is the adorable children’s book A New Friend for Rudra -- see it in his Flickr set.
Quotes by Raghava KK
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“We put together a list of 7,000 [wedding invitees]. … 150 artists volunteered to help me with my wedding. We had fashion designers, installation artists, models, makeup artists, jewelry designers, all kinds of people working with me to make my wedding an art installation.”
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“I can’t promise my child a life without bias — we’re all biased — but I promise to bias my child with multiple perspectives.”
