Matthew Krishanu

Matthew Krishanu makes works that convey the ambiguities of the postcolonial. Subtle shifts in register on the surface of his paintings imbue his subject matter with a sense of ambiguity and detachment. Through this Krishanu questions the positions of his subjects and depictions of landscapes in relation to the legacy of European colonialism. The subject matter of his works circles back to his early childhood spent in Dhaka where his parents moved to before he was one in order to work for the Church of Bangladesh.

Writing about his recent institutional solo exhibition at Camden Art Centre Bidisha Mamata observed: “The compositions have a pared-down elegance, but they pulse with unease. The nuclear family of Krishanu’s mother (an Indian theologian and academic), father (a White English priest) and two young boys is ripped through by his critique of colonisation, patriarchy and missionary delusion. These are family snapshots developed in acid and coloured in with spiritual scepticism, fraternal bonding, familial claustrophobia, cultural displacement and paternalistic folly. The wary boys in the paintings look as if they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop—or the bough to break.”

Krishanu often employs a shallow pictorial depth and backgrounds that often veer into abstraction. Sometimes figures occupy those shallow spaces, often the two young boys that Mamata writes of, who are Krishanu and his brother, existing in a liminal zone at a remove to their surroundings. His paintings subtly articulate the hybridised practices after the British had departed its colonies and speak of the lives of those who lived in the postcolonial landscape. Empire might be history, but its effects persist, permeating the contemporary.

These are paintings that question where the space is for subjects who find themselves within a foreign, imperial narrative, an afterthought to the great ‘civilising’ mission. Often this is to be an observer rather than a participant, perhaps indeed observing the decline of that mission. Krishanu’ subjects might only be allowed marginal and precarious subject positions but there is a tenuous security in those positions, watching as imposed traditions slowly sink into the unforgiving land.

Matthew Krishanu (b.1980) was born in Bradford and based in London. He completed an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2009. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Camden Art Centre (2024), Huddersfield Art Gallery (2018);  Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham (2019); and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2019). His group institutional exhibitions include Whitechapel Art Gallery (2023), Dhaka Art Summit (2023);  Mead Gallery, Warwick (2022); Coventry Biennial (2022); ‘Mixing It Up’, Hayward Gallery (2021),  ‘John Moores Painting Prize’ (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2021) ‘Everyday Heroes’ (Hayward Gallery/Southbank Centre, 2020) and ‘A Rich Tapestry’ (Lahore Biennale, 2020).