Navin Thomas Madras (Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India, b.1974
Navin Thomas (b.1974) is a sculptor and sound artist, working predominantly with mixed media and found materials. He was educated in cinematography and graphic design, and now experiments with acoustics, integrating sounds of ecology and built architecture. Steering away from activism, his approach to art-making involves a reinterpretation of the traditional notions of the natural world and its ever changing landscapes.
The artist explains “earlier as part of my practice I liked to observe what a city discarded and try make more sense of it through my work which lead me to the idea of acoustic ecology and its relationship in built architecture and the way it constantly moves away and re-represents itself from the old formal ways of the landscape as a stage.”
Navin Thomas’s works have had numerous group exhibitions in prestigious institutions such as the 10th Anniversary Show at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, curated by Akansha Rastogi and Roobina Karode, New Delhi (2020); Flight of the fabricator, curated by Beate Engle, Maximillan Forum, Munich, Germany (2017); Bright Noise, curated by Girish Shane, Lalit Kala Akademi (2014) and Generation in Transition, curated by Magda Kardasz, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2011). Additionally, Navin’s work has been a part of Whorled Explorations, curated by Jitish Kallat, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2014), and Art Walk Water, curated by Gayatri Sinha, EuropaliaIndia, Liege (2013–14).
Navin Thomas is the recipient of a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts for his extended art practice towards a book on salvaged photo negatives (2013), The Skoda Prize for Contemporary Art (2012), and a grant from Sarai (CSDS) to make an audio map of busking performances at popular city railway stations (2003).
Selected Artworks
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Out Here in the Exosphere, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi, India
2015
The heart is a variant, Institute for Contemporary art, Singapore
2010
From the town's end, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India
2006
sound asleep, PROJECT 88, Mumbai, India
2005
Auto In, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India
2004
In Transit, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India
Group Exhibitions
2020
narrating from the museum archives and collection, Ten Years of KNMA, Curated by Akansha Rastogi and Roobina Karode, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India
2017
Flight of the fabricator, Curated by Beate Engle and Christian Engelmann, Maximillan Forum, Munich, Germany
2016
These are a few of our favourite works, GALLERYSKE and PHOTOINK, New Delhi, India
2015
In the depths of our crater lake, all is silent, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Codes of Culture, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi, India
2014
Whorled Explorations, Curated by Jitish Kallat, Kochi‐Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India
Bright Noise, Curated by Girish Shahne, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, India
2013–2014
Art Walk: Water, Curated by Gayatri Sinha, Europalia India, Liège, Belgium
2013
Audible Forces, Curated by Diana Campbell, Betancourt, F320, New Delhi, India
Delhi Inaugural Show, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi, India
Trilingual, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India
5th Anniversary, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India
2012
Music for Restrooms, Atlas Performing Arts Centre, Washington DC, USA
Air Sri Lanka, Galerie Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, Austria
Skoda Top Twenty Show, Curated by Girish Shahane, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India
2011
Generation in Transition, Curated by Magda Kardasz, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Mix Tape, Exhibition of accessible audio tape, Curated by Lucas Abela, Tin Shed Gallery, Darlington, Australia
IN CONTEXT: PUBLIC.ART.ECOLOGY, Khoj International Artists’ Exhibition, New Delhi, India
2010
In other words, Exploration of new site specific sound works, Select book house, Bangalore, India
Continuum Transfunctioner, Curated by Gitanjali Dang, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, India
GALLERYSKE for Gallery BMB, BMB Gallery, Mumbai, India
2009
Analytical Engines, Bose Pacia, Calcutta, India
Immersions, Anant Art, Curated by Deeksha Nath, New Delhi, India
Group show, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore, India
2008
Where in the world, Curated by the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Devi Art Foundation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
India 1 Bangalore, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, Austria
Still moving image, Curated by Deeksha Nath, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India
Avatar, Asia's Narrators, Re Asia, a literature festival curated by Ilija Trojanow, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Mechanisms of Motion, Curated by Marta Jakimowicz, Anant Art, New Delhi, India
2007
New Installations from India, Part I, Curated by Michael Olijnyk and Barbara Luderowski, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA
2005
Indian Summer, Curated by Henri‐Claude Cousseau, Deepak Ananth, Jany Lauga, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, France
World-Information City, Curated by Institute of New Culture Technologies, Vienna, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore and Ayisha Abraham, Bangalore, India
Awards
2013
India Foundation for the Arts (extended arts practice grant towards a book on salvaged photo negatives), Bangalore, India
2011
The Skoda Prize for Indian Contemporary Art, 2011
2003
Grant from Sarai (CSDS), to make an audio map of busking performance at popular city railway stations, New Delhi, India