Avinash Karn was born in a family of Madhubani painters in Ranti, a village in Bihar and he is the founder of Mandhubani’s first art collective ‘Kacchi- Bharni’ (meaning line-filling) which aims at revolutionizing and transcending the folk art into contemporary ethos, responding to our time.
He has kept true to his cultural roots as an indigenous art practitioner and stays very relevant as he is constantly responding to the reality of today, contrary to being conservative and stylistically monotonous. He upholds the culture of traditional art practice with an evolving, inclusive continuum in which the ancient form exudes timelessness through these works.
Artist
Avinash Karn
Biography
Avinash Karn was born in a family of Madhubani painters in Ranti, a village in Bihar and he is the founder of Mandhubani’s first art collective ‘Kacchi- Bharni’ (meaning line-filling) which aims at revolutionizing and transcending the folk art into contemporary ethos, responding to our time. He is also the founder of community studio space ‘ArtBole’- a hub of artists and craftsmen dedicated to Madhubani art and shaping it to innovative dynamics.
Being brought up intimately with folk art practitioners and a community environment of organic artist groups, Avinash’s perspective on Madhubani has evolved through an original lens through which he represents his visuals, responding to contemporary subjects and themes while keeping the indigenous folk forms and the Madhubani aesthetic very much alive in his works. Breaking out from the early, classical aspects of Madhubani, which sets a thematic ground for the art in subjects and motifs, Avinash’s work is his responses as a global citizen to a stream of movement that he’s grown up with. Adding to the classical forms of nature, birds, animals, and the theme of love, Avinash depicts his personal and philosophical takes and contemporary observations. The notion and impact of femininity, the wondrous cycle of birth and death, the changing landscape, pop culture, and human emotional intimacy- the large oeuvre of the artist takes us to different zones of human experience. He has kept true to his cultural roots as an indigenous art practitioner and stays very relevant as he is constantly responding to the reality of today, contrary to being conservative and stylistically monotonous. He upholds the culture of traditional art practice with an evolving, inclusive continuum in which the ancient form exudes timelessness through these works. By constantly teaching traditional Madhubani art to the eager ones, the artist is directly contributing to keeping this folk form alive.
Avinash is not conserved into the previously drawn vocabulary of Madhubani or Mithila art and investigating into the universal complexities with the aesthetics of the roots, he is also liberating the form into various visual and conceptual possibilities.
Since 2016, Avinash has been collaborating with Artreach India, New Delhi on a number of community art initiatives with young girls from the Muslim community in Bihar and native tribes in Jharkhand.
His artworks have been collected all over the world and shown in a number of national and international galleries and institutions. His recent shows include ‘A Perceptual Ode: Special Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Indo-Korean Relations," Jeju Island (Korea), and a special showcase at the Busan International Art Fair, BEXCO, Busan (Korea), Curated by Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat and organized by the InKo Centre, Chennai, ‘Indigenous Creativity VI: Exhibition of Folk & Tribal Art of India’, IHC, New Delhi, and many more. He was invited to the Fumetto Comic Art Festival, Luzern, Switzerland in 2019 as a featured artist to represent India. His works are in collections of the Ethnic Art Foundation (USA), Azim Premji University Bangalore, Musui Foundation (New Delhi), Lalit Kala Akademi (New Delhi), and many other national and international private and institutional collections. The artist currently lives and works in Ranti village of Madhubani, Bihar.