Nature Morte is pleased to present a group of new paintings created in the past few years by Ramakrishna Behera. While many artists are at a loss for subjects to paint, Behera knows no such difficulties. An enthusiastic traveller, he ventures to specific locations to investigate historical monuments, natural marvels, geological strata, and the expansive sky which blankets it all. This group of paintings was inspired by visits to Central and South America, and one from Australia, expanding upon his lexicon of landscapes that are fused with astronomical observations, only hesitantly approaching abstraction.

Kinematics is the study of moving bodies in space, as theorised by Albert Einstein. With Behera’s paintings, the viewer finds himself within a vortex with scant attention paid to gravity or rational thought. We experience the artist’s experience of visiting a site, in all its complexities, where multiple viewpoints and elements converge over time. The subject of Behera’s works is the relativity of simultaneity, the principle that empirical observation is not absolute and depends on the observer’s frame of reference. For a body to move through three-dimensional space implies the fourth-dimension of time. While appearing somewhat surreal, Behera’s paintings actually posit a hyper-real scenario for picturing a more complex experience of space and time than from the single vantage of a solitary individual.

Ramakrishna Behera (b. Orissa, 1977) lives and works in Faridabad . He received his BA in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Rorkee (1996–2000) and worked as a Chemical Engineer with the Indian Oil Corporation Limited. His recent solo exhibitions were held at Nature Morte, The Oberoi, Gurgaon; Bose Pacia Gallery, New York; Seven Art Gallery, Delhi; Bose Pacia Gallery, Kolkata, and Curvature,All India Fine Arts and Craft Society (AIFACS), New Delhi. Behera has participated ingroup exhibitions such as L. N. Tallur & Ramakrishna Behera, Nature Morte, New Delhi; Audi Show, Gurgaon; Contemplate Gallery, Coimbatore; The Gamut, Nature Morte, New Delhi; Towards A New Viewership/Audience, Bakul Art Fest, Lalit Kala Akademi, Bhubaneswar, Orissa; Dimensions & Directions, Mon Art Gallery, Kolkata; Earth on Canvas, WWF India Secretariat, New Delhi; Homebound We,Lalit Kala Akademy, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.