Chennakeshav (Keshav) Adya | Startups, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Finance, M<TITLE>Chennakeshav (Keshav) Adya | Corporate Finance, M&A, Strategy, Business and Digital Transformation, Growth Zymurgist, Investor, Author, Podcaster, Artist

A, Strategy, Investment Banking, Business and Digital Transformation, Growth Zymurgist, Investor, Author, Podcaster, Artist

Art is my life-long passion, and source of joy, and torment

I love dabbling with oil and acrylic on canvas, woodwork,

writing copy, digital art, DIY, sculpting, food art, PowerPoint

and any blank space, where I can express my creativity

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It is so fine, and yet so terrifying to stand in front of a blank canvas

My avant-garde work explores the relationship between the universality of myth and Jungian archetypes. Some of my work also explores the relationship between pre-Raphaelite tenets and multimedia experiences which brings out a hegemony of greed and a sense of nihilism.

With influences as diverse as Derrida and Roy Lichtenstein, new synergies are distilled from both dialogues which mundanely constructed and transcendentally structured.

From the time I was a pre-adolescent, I have been fascinated by the theoretical limits of the universe and by the essential unreality of meaning and existence. What starts out as triumph soon becomes corrupted into a dialectic of defeat, leaving only a sense of decadence and the inevitability of a new order with a cacophony of futility.

As subtle derivatives and spatial momentary forms become distorted through emergent and personal practices, the viewer is left with a tribute to the outposts of our cultural era and with a hymn to the possibilities of our existence shaped by insights into the inaccuracies of our worldly existence in the matrix.

Please feel free to buy my artwork. All proceeds go to Corona-related charities, and in helping the under-privileged in these difficult times. Happy to paint or build special requests.

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The Mancala - ALaguLi MaNe

Woodwork, 2020

Size: 40 W x 100 H x 0.8 D in

Woodwork

ALiGuLi Mane (Kannada) is an abstract mathematical strategy board game of the mancala family from Karnataka in South India. Over the past couple of weekends, I managed to make use of some spare hours, some spare pieces of plywood, some imagination, some drive and the motivation to introduce my boys to this fantastic mathematical strategy game.

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The Melancholic Window to Nothingness

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2021

Size: 40 W x 100 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art

A black hole is the most destructive, yet oddly satisfying object in the universe. I caught a glimpse of Saggitarius A* from the Melancholic Window to Nothingness. Painted during what was possibly the lowest point in my life.
The challenge was paint the swirling motion of the matter in concentric loops, but in 3D. Additionally, gravitational lensing was an interesting challenge to paint (eventually achieved using a simple fork).

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The Perspicacious Crazy Frog

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work is a visually pleasing, sociological collected and manipulated consisting of floating, ghostly pairs of eyes which is reminiscent of binary opposition between straight and gay. The work deploys post-capitalist consumer politics as highlighting the status of the image in today's saturated visual environment.

This work is also a disembodied and disguised, erotic box of prisms that reflect viewers' own eyes back consisting of drawings and collages which is reminiscent of racial inequality, power struggles, systemic violence, and religious fervour.

The work deploys illusions with reflective surfaces as rich dark humour. The work deploys monumental scale as shifting from the familiar to the strange in a way that seems to escape words.

Crazy Frog, originally known as The Annoying Thing, is a Swedish CGI-animated character and musician created in 2003. I introduced my 5-year old and 7-year old boys to the Crazy Frog and inspired this painting.

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The Cantankerous King, Fisher III

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

The work deploys pageantry as denouncing the vast income gap between rich and poor. This work is an explicit, allegorical infinite visual abyss consisting of floating, ghostly pairs of eyes which is reminiscent a metaphor for the possibility of spectacular transformation and rebirth.

With influences as diverse as Rousseau and Joni Mitchell, new tensions are synthesised from both opaque and transparent structures.

My 5-year old and 7-year old boys saw a kingfisher in our garden and we were fascinated by the colours. It caught a glance of us looking at it and got a bit grumpy and flew away.

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The Thalassic Perspicuous SeaHorse

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work is a precious and disturbing, reflective handmade sculpture of aquatic animals and other everyday objects consisting of glitter placed on the boundaries which is reminiscent of an unpredictable and turbulent world, depending on the direction of the light falling on it.

As temporal derivatives become distorted through diligent and critical practice, the viewer is left with a testament to the inaccuracies of our ways to paint our own destinies.

My 5-year old and 7-year old boys saw a documentary about seahorses and were fascinated by how they create and incubate their babies; the thought of which, inspired this painting.

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The Machiavellian Melanistic Malkin

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work is an explicit, allegorical infinite visual abyss consisting of floating, ghostly pairs of eyes which is reminiscent of death as a metaphor for the possibility of spectacular transformation and rebirth.

The work deploys layering sounds and images as symbolizing a breakdown between the natural and artificial.

What starts out as hope soon becomes finessed into a carnival of futility, leaving only a sense of surrealism and the dawn of a new reality.

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The Ritzy Brobdingnagian Rhinoceros

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

The two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros is the most vocal of the rhinoceros species and shares the bleak distinction of the world's most endangered rhino.

This work is a peculiar and banal, autobiographical set of larger-than-life animals consisting of uncanny performance of media narrative as childlike theatre which is reminiscent of narratives of identity, mortality, loss and love.

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The Magnanimous Wrigley's Giraffe

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work of a towering giraffe blowing a bubblegum is an explicit, surreal performative sculpture consisting of lush medleys of colour, pattern, and texture. The work deploys semi fictional characters with real-world knowledge as the struggle to communicate.

The work deploys semi fictional characters with real-world knowledge as rearing up to tower over the viewer.

As spatial replicas become transformed through boundaried and critical practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the inaccuracies of our world.

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The Motley Psychedelic Toucan

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work is a brilliantly coloured, domestic chrome Toucan consisting of elaborately beaded sculptures which is reminiscent of our own position or role amid the chaos.

My 5-year old and 7-year old boys saw a toucan at the Miami Zoo last year(2019) and we were fascinated by the colours. We saw a documentary and reminisced the encounter with the motley toucan in Miami.

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The Debonair Gargantuan Pachyderm

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

Elephants are highly sensitive and caring animals, much like humans. They are highly intelligent animals with complex emotions, feelings, compassion and self-awareness making them debonair in nature.

This work is a disembodied and disguised, process-oriented meditation on personal transformation consisting of upended objects and rooms which is reminiscent of dystopian futures.

As spatial derivatives become distorted through studious and critical practice, the viewer is left with a clue to the edges of our existence.

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The Curious Chatoyant Cat

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Modern Art

This work is an ornate, constructed metamorphosis consisting of social hierarchies which is reminiscent of the gaps between necessity and desire, practicality and fiction. The work deploys the use of encaustic and one-point perspective as collapsing the past and present to use allegory as a form of live-action or real-time role-play between the felines and humans.

The work deploys private symbols as a way to frame and transform reality.

My 7-year old son was fascinated by a curious cat near our swimming pool and this inspired me to paint a colourful rendition of the cat The eyes of the cat were quite chatoyant and reminded us of a gem.

Coming soon...

My first brush with Tanjore Gold Painting (in the works)

Gold foil, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2020/2021

Size: 15.7 W x 23.6 H x 0.8 D in

Tanjore Gold painting

Thanjavur painting is a classical South Indian painting style, which was inaugurated from the town of Thanjavur (anglicized as Tanjore)

Thanjavur paintings are characterised by rich and vivid colors, simple iconic composition, glittering gold foils overlaid on delicate but extensive gesso work and inlay of glass beads and pieces or very rarely precious and semi-precious gems.

Refer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanjavur_painting

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