“Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” -Wassily Kandinsky.

These words are a fitting description for Nagajan’s practice, which finds inspiration in spirituality. To find the rhythm of his spirit, he often performs mundane activities like rolling chapatis, wave-boarding, playing frisbee or doing garba, while painting. In these moments he finds harmony between his body and soul, which is essential for his creative process. The four works featured in this show depict the nostalgia that pervades his current state of mind. This is a nostalgia for his identity, his home, that manifests in memories of his nights spent on his farm to protect his families’ ‘channa’ crops, or the tragedy of his beloved bullock passing away. Nagajan’s paintings are heavily layered to mimic the vortex of his thoughts about the event / moment that he is rendering. While he paints with clarity and directness, with bold colors and plays with light, the layers give the viewer a sense of his deep emotion.