Sri-Lankan born, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is a contemporary artist. He is interested in global histories and languages of figurative representation and their intersections with issues relating to the politics of idolatry, the monument, gender, race and religiosity. He has specific interests in South Asian forms and imagery. While he is best known for his inventive and somewhat unorthodox approach to ceramic media, his material vernacular is broad. He has worked imaginatively with a range of sculptural materials including bronze, concrete, neon, LED and fibreglass.
Selected Works
Overview
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Idols of Mud and Water, 2023.
Installation views, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland. Commissioned by Tramway, Glasgow and funded by Creative Australia, Creative Scotland and the Henry Moore Foundation. Photography by Keith Hunter.
installation view, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo Mark Pokorny.
Installation view, Dark MOFO, Tasmania.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Earth Deities, 2022.
Installation view, Vivid Sydney, Hickson Road Reserve. Photography by Mark Pokorny.
earthenware, glaze, gold lustre, platinum lustre, enamel, porcelain, polystyrene
352 × 258 × 100 cm
495 × 258 × 125 cm (with plinth)
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Slaying Monsters, Kuandu Biennale, 2016.
Installation view, Kuandu National Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, The Cave, The National: New Australian Art, 2017.
Installation view, Carriageworks, Eora/Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Carriageworks.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, False Gods, 2019.
Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Eora/Sydney. Photography by Mark Pokorny.
bronze sculpture on custom made spray painted mild steel plinth
(unique kinetic edition includes motor built into the plinth)
181.5 x 95 x 52 cm (total)
141 x 60 x 18 cm (sculpture)
40.5 x 95 x 52 (plinth)
Edition of 3 + 2 Artist's Proofs + 1 unique kinetic edition
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Undergod, 2023.
Installation view, Sullivan+Strumpf, Naarm/Melbourne. Photography by Christian Capurro.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Undergod, 2023.
earthenware
74 × 41 × 27cm
earthenware and glaze
95 x 47 x 38 cm
Exhibitions
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About
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran
Biography
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is a contemporary artist of Sri Lankan, Tamil heritage. His practice traverses global histories and languages of figuration with a particular focus on South Asian traditions. He sees the imaginative exploration of ancient pasts as a way to speculate on parallel futures and to expand ways of perceiving the present. While he works across ceramics, bronze casting, painting, drawing, and immersive installation, he is best known for his hybrid ceramic sculptures that fuse references to ancient forms with various tropes and imagery from popular culture, zoology and other discourses. Through these works he explores themes of secular and non-secular idolatry, co-existent belief systems, queer aesthetics, disciplinary and regional histories of ceramics and sculpture, monumentality, as well as self-portraiture and autobiography.
He has developed major projects in museums, biennials, multi-arts centres, and public spaces. Notable presentations include the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Dhaka Art Summit, Tramway (Glasgow), the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi) and Dark Mofo festival (Hobart). In 2023, his first major international institutional exhibition, Idols of Mud and Water at Tramway, Glasgow, led to the acquisition of a large-scale installation comprising 100 works by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. His work is also represented in significant public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Nithiyendran has been widely recognised with prizes and awards. These include a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship (2019) for outstanding talent and professional courage, the NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (2014), The Sidney Myer Fund Ceramic Award (2015) and GQ’s Artist of the Year (2023). In 2022, RAMESH, a 368-page monograph, was published and internationally distributed by Thames & Hudson.
Alongside his studio practice, Nithiyendran maintains a strong media presence, engaging with public discourse on contemporary art, culture, fashion and design. He has hosted ABC Radio National’s The Art Show and appeared as guest host on ABC TV’s The Art Of. His work and insights have been featured in major international publications, including The Guardian, Art Review, Artforum, Vogue, CNN and many others.
He also plays an active role in cultural leadership. He is currently a Director on the Board of Artspace, Sydney, and a Lecturer at UNSW Art & Design, where he teaches and mentors emerging artists. He serves regularly as a jury member for prizes, awards and fellowships, and has been invited to contribute to advisory panels, curatorial projects, and policy initiatives within the arts sector. Through these roles, he advocates for inclusive practices and the visibility of artists from various diasporas.
Photography by Bowen Arico
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