Visual Disobedience Brings Four Contemporary Practices Into Dialogue Through Paper, Line and Space

KYNKYNY presents Visual Disobedience, a group exhibition bringing together Yuvan Bothysathuvar, S. Ravi Shankar, Saravanan Parasuraman and Ganesh Selvaraj. The exhibition looks at the ways line, geometry, color, repetition and material can alter the way a two-dimensional work is perceived, with paper forming the principal material across much of the exhibition and a large iron sculpture introducing a contrasting sense of weight and volume.

The four artists approach abstraction through markedly different processes. Paper is cut, folded, rolled, layered and assembled, moving beyond its familiar role as a support for an image and becoming part of the physical construction of the work. As surfaces acquire depth, lines appear to move forward or recede, repeated forms create rhythm, and color changes the perception of both space and volume.

The exhibition also sits within the longer history of Indian abstraction, particularly the modernist experiments associated with the Madras Art Movement. Artists including K.C.S. Paniker and L. Munuswamy developed approaches to abstraction that drew upon geometry, symbolism, philosophy and vernacular visual traditions. Visual Disobedience does not attempt to reproduce that vocabulary but brings together four contemporary practices that continue to examine how systems of form and perception can be constructed through material.

For S. Ravi Shankar, paper becomes a way of building architectural and sculptural picture planes. His works are characterised by symmetry, repetition and carefully measured intervals, with laser cutting allowing the drawn line to become a physical incision. The resulting reliefs change with the movement of light, as shadows fall across the cut surfaces and alter the perception of depth. Much of his work remains within a restrained, monochromatic

palette, allowing the precision of the construction to remain central.

Yuvan Bothysathuvar works differently, building his intensely colored compositions through accumulation. Newsprint, plywood and different types of paper are rolled, layered and assembled into large fields made up of numerous individual linear elements. At first glance, the works can appear relatively flat, but closer attention reveals the physical build-up of the surface. Color operates within this construction rather than simply sitting on top of it, with changes in density and tone creating movement across the work.

In Ganesh Selvaraj’s practice, cutting becomes a method of constructing complex visual systems. Organic and geometric paper forms are repeated across the picture plane, intersecting and expanding into compositions that can appear highly ordered while remaining visually active. The repeated form changes meaning as it becomes part of a larger configuration, while light and shadow expose the physical depth created by the cut paper.

Saravanan Parasuraman’s work is organised around recurring circular and spherical forms. Geometric elements are repeated and arranged in varying densities, creating configurations that can suggest structures at very different scales, from cellular forms to planetary bodies. There are visual associations with mandalas and yantras, although the works do not function as direct representations of either. Instead, repetition and geometry become ways of considering systems, recurrence and relationships between smaller and larger forms.

The large iron sculpture in the exhibition provides a material counterpoint to the predominantly paper-based works. Where the paper pieces depend on lightness, layering and the shifting relationship between surface and depth, iron introduces mass and permanence. Its presence expands the exhibition’s investigation of line and space into a material that behaves very differently from paper.

What connects the four practices is not a single visual language but an interest in how basic elements can be altered through process. A line can become an incision, a repeated shape can become a field, a flat sheet can acquire volume, and a familiar material can begin to behave differently from what is expected of it. The exhibition takes these changes in perception as its starting point.

Founded in 2004 by Namu Kini and Vivek Radhakrishnan, KYNKYNY has developed a contemporary Indian art programme that includes both emerging and established artists. The gallery operates across Bengaluru and Mumbai and works with collectors, architects, designers, corporations and institutions alongside its exhibition programme. Its broader programme engages with subjects including abstraction, ecology, landscape, identity, memory, cultural inheritance and the urban condition.

Exhibition: Visual Disobedience

Artists: Yuvan Bothysathuvar, S. Ravi Shankar, Saravanan Parasuraman and Ganesh Selvaraj Dates: 19 September–17 October 2026 Venue: KYNKYNY, 104 Embassy Square, 148 Infantry Road, Bengaluru 560001 Timing: Monday–Saturday,11:00-AM–6:00 PMClosed: Sundays Entry: Free Website: www.kynkyny.com Instagram: @kynkynyart