Anilakumar Govindappa b. 1993
Born in 1993, in Bangalore, Karnataka, Anilakumar Govindappa is a multidisciplinary artist. While trained as a painter and printmaker, he works across mediums combining printmaking, painting, ceramics. Anilakumar graduated in Painting from KEN School of Art, Hampi University in 2012 and later completed his master’s in Printmaking from S N School of Art and Communication, University of Hyderabad in 2015.
He has participated in several national and international exhibitions and biennale. He has received the Young Artists Award from the Ministry of Art and Culture, Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi Scholarship, South Indian Art Exhibition Jury Award. His works were exhibited at the Osten Biennale of Drawing Skopje in 2016, LandSpaces a group art show – in Chennai in 2019, ‘Desire of the city’ - a solo exhibition at 1Shanthi Road Gallery, Bangalore 2019, Chi Gallery – in Iran in 2020, and Immerse group exhibition – in Mumbai in 2022. AMI art festival youth award for visual art KCC in Kolkata in 2022. ‘ A Reverie of a memory’ solo exhibition in Method Gallery, Mumbai 2023. He participated in a group exhibition in Space studio alumni show at Baroda in 2023, and DCAW group exhibition with Blueprint.12 gallery at Bikaner House, New Delhi 2024. He has done a Solo exhibition “Inward Outbound” with Blueprint.12 in Delhi 2025. Anila bagged several artists residency programs and workshops such as Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi Graphic Printmaking Fellowship 2021, Space Studio sculpture residency 2020, Kalakriti residency, National Printmaking Workshop – Visva Bharati University - Santiniketan, Dhi Art Space woodcut workshop and many more.
Anila’s work resembles a diary of events that took place in his everyday life. He leaves nothing behind from his observation and the remembrances of such events. The places and people connected with him in a day-to-day environment appear in his images quite often and become a 360-degree view of the life around him. Sometimes, he deliberately implants metaphorical visual elements that resemble his personal interpretation or statements about material existence.
Anila's work is not only about capturing the essence of an event but also captures the profound impact of politics and nature on our society and individual lives. Drawing from personal observations, he reflects on the transformative changes in his surroundings, from the rapid urbanization of villages to the devastating degradation of natural landscapes. Inspired by his childhood experiences witnessing the metamorphosis of a thriving village into a bustling city, and the disappearance of forests, lakes, and green spaces beneath concrete and development, his artwork explores the complex interplay between socio-political forces and the environment. His creative vision aims to illuminate the consequences of human actions on our ecosystems, communities, and individual lives, sparking contemplation and dialogue about the critical issues shaping the world.He is absorbed in exploring how human beings perceive their world and how they interpret it based on their experiences.
His visual narratives are not just about one thing at a certain time, instead, they are about various things at diverse points and times that turned into a book of short stories eventually. As one walks through the pages, one will come across different moments of life, and it goes on... For him, the process of drawing is an extension of his thought process, where there would be no place for anything else other than a pure expression in its primitive preliminary state. The rawness of the drawings reflects the ambiguity of the thoughts running in his mind, and it is where he would relate his thought process with the genuine and humble images that evolved in his drawings.