There is a quiet intensity in the way artist Raghav KK speaks – partly philosopher, partly artist, and partly painter, unlearning everything he once knew. Ashvita’s latest series, Figuring the Edge, channels that sentiment through abstraction. It is a body of work that is born not from a narrative, but from its subversion.
For decades, Raghav has been known as a storyteller who has blurred the boundaries between art and technology, and emotion and intellect. But here, he walks away from the story. “Stories make us who we are,” he says. “Stories are the cause of many innovations and help Homo sapiens take over the world; they’re also the source of a lot of destruction, so when you hold on to stories too tightly, they break; I want to show what happens when stories break.”
Raghav KK Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A few years ago, Raghav’s own story came to light. After collaborating in the US for two decades on different continents, his life was ruined when he got divorced. “I was at the top of my game, doing art camps for Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, then I went through a divorce and suddenly, everything I thought I was started to fall apart,” he says. “So I came back to India, to my mom, trying to make sense of it all.”
His brother, Karthik Kalyan Raman, a philosopher and economist, was undergoing a similar calculation. “He started asking me these questions – when the stories break you, who are you?” These questions became central to Figuring the Edge – each work began as a written inquiry, then a sketch, and then a painting. “I spent four or five days just writing, thinking and sketching. I made hundreds of sketches before I got to this. Each artwork poses a question and the painting becomes the answer.”
Edge Detection by Raghav KK Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Thick impastos, shifting pigments and restless strokes shape the artworks on the wall. “I wanted to create something that would allow me to re-invent myself through the process. After 30 years of painting, I felt the need to paint as if I was starting over – to break every rule I had set for myself and create something completely new.” ‘The Edge’ is a stage of existence in the series. “While doing this series, I realized that artists should live on the fringes of society, we were never meant to be the centre, we were meant to push the boundaries.”
“Art forms are unphotographable and reveal themselves only when you stand in front of it. These paintings demand time. They reveal themselves slowly, only if you stay with them. That’s why I say my paintings are not images; they’re like people. As you get closer, they show you their scratches and imperfections. The chaos comes into focus. The closer you get, you realize it’s all a beautiful kind of mess. Is.”
Born in Bengaluru to a Tamil Hindu family, raised in a Muslim neighborhood and educated in a Catholic school, Raghav’s artistic journey is filled with multiple perspectives. “I can play my Christmas carols, sing Azaan and even do Sandhya Vandanam.” His canvases reflect this multiplicity, and each viewer sees something different – a figure, a face or a landscape.
With Figuring the Edge, the artist returns to the Chennai art scene after two decades. His canvases become sites of tension between body and image, figure and ground. Through his abstract work, Raghav invites viewers to stand at the edge of art and re-invent themselves.
Figuring The Edge continues at Ashvita’s, Mylapore till December 15, Monday to Friday, 11am to 7pm. Entry fee.
published – November 19, 2025 03:55 PM IST