Gnana

Bold and sometimes dramatic, P. Gnana’s compositions of the Eternal Companion series nonetheless evoke a sense of quiet absorption and contemplation. Having first trained as a mechanical engineer, Gnana went on to study art at LASALLE, and his work has since been acquired by luminaries such as the President of the Republic of Singapore (Hon. President Mr. S. R. Nathan) and collectors, including the Singapore Art Museum.

Born and brought up in Neyveli (Tamil Nadu), P. Gnana began his artistic career interested in figurative images, working from his experiences through life. After a phase of abstract expressionist exploration, we now find him fusing the two forms to create the semi-abstracted figures, elegant with elongated limbs and blank eyes closed in thought, cast against an enigmatic backdrop. The trees are suggestive of Japanese painting, with their brittle beauty outlined starkly with the figures, supporting birds and echoing the colours of the moon. Gnana’s exploration of both forms of expression, the figurative and the abstract, has led to his style being pared down to the bare minimum to fully convey the attachment of the human and the animal revered in ancient and contemporary cultures.

When Gnana was a child, his parents used to own and breed cows in their home in Neyveli, and the cow occupies a very special place in Hindu culture. Representing strength, self-less giving and the Earth that asks for nothing in return, cows are depicted frequently in Indian art. Both human and cow live and die together, bound to each other by mutual ties of dependency and support. As Gnana says “Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on”.