Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran - Idols of Mud and Water

Preview Thursday 23 November

The first institutional solo exhibition in the UK and Europe for the Sydney-based artist

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran was born in Colombo, Sri-Lanka in 1988 and has lived in Australia since 1989. Drawing from historical figuration as well as contemporary influences, he crafts exuberant ceramic sculptures inspired by global histories of figuration, religious iconographies, and contemporary culture. 

Colourful, hybrid, human-animal sculptures echo the multifarious and coexistent belief systems that reflect the artist’s own ancestry, inspired by religious imagery and mythological narratives across South Asia. Arriving with his parents in Sydney as a Tamil refugee in 1989, Ramesh’s wider family practiced Hinduism and Catholicism to varying degrees, and Hindu, Christian and Buddhist cultures have coexisted and have intertwined in Sri-Lanka for centuries. This approach to understanding relationships between global histories and philosophies is encapsulated in this new exhibition.

Image: Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran in his studio with some of the sculptures for The Guardians, Sullivan and Strumpf, October 2021
Photo by Jessica Maurer