Devotee, 2015
N.N. Rimzon’s many-decade career has been devoted to work across media, including installation, sculpture, painting, and drawing. His early artistic formation, in conversation with the tenets of minimalism and conceptualism, has set him apart from a narrative tradition of painting in India. His works examine the relationship between art and life, which has evolved from his deep interest and respect for materials. Rimzon’s work balances recognizable representation with a profound sense of mystery. The figures in his work are symbolic, borderline mythological in their presentation, which follows the reoccurring themes of fecundity and divinity in his body of works. Connections between the natural world and the figure, where the concept of the figure and the environment are at odds, are explored in more narrative-style paintings. Rimzon affirms his practice as an extension of and distillation of the classical thought and traditions that have continued to infuse life and art in India for millennia.
Much of my work might appear to be figurative but there is an underlying representation, whether I deal with spiritual, political or social concerns. I want them to have an ability to heal.
N.N. Rimzon
There is a spiritual protocol in the work of Rimzon, for example where it is the chastened body of sculpture that propels the viewer into a controlled encounter. Though structured within a seemingly tabooed space, the encounter does not involve the raw/dead/real body . Holding off hallucination in the duration of a dream walk, it concretizes an archetype for contemporary use.
Geeta Kapur
The imagery is not very difficult to understand, it is all related to things we see around us. The symbolism comes from our collective memory.
N.N. Rimzon
…the artist harnesses the power of spare line and multiple perspectives within a single frame to beguile the viewer. In bringing together the sacred and the carnal, Rimzon underscores the regenerative energies that such a union could potentially release.
Artforum
The range of Rimzon’s work finds an echo in the varied sensibilities and ideas that he provokes in the viewer, thus confirming his status as one of India’s most deeply intellectual artists.
Rimzon’s works have been exhibited at museums across the globe including recently at The Barbican Centre, London, UK; The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, Australia; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Delhi, India; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Asia Society, New York; Museum of Modern Art, (MuHKA), Antwerp, Belgium; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Singapore Art Museum; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan and The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Nedumgottil Narayanan Rimzon (N.N. Rimzon) was born in 1957 in Kakkoor, Kerala, India. Rimzon earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in sculpture from the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum (1982), a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at MS University, Baroda (1984) and a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art, London (1989). Rimzon taught Sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum, India and was the Director of the Art School from 2011-2014.
Rimzon lives and works in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Blood Rain, 2019-2020
Fiberglass, laminated photographs, and cotton rope
124" x 27" x 29"
TG 4150
The Round Ocean and the Living Death, 2019-2020
Fiberglass, granite dust, and plywood
42" x 120" x 120"
TG 4151
Forest at Night, 2014
Fiberglass, resin and granite dust
Base: 45″ x 60″ x 60″
Figure: 72.5 ″ x 18″ x 8″
TG 3706
From the ghats of Yamuna, 1990
Terracotta pots, marble, and fiberglass
112 x 68 x 56 cm
I thank you once again, 1995-2016
Cast bronze
55" x 339"
TG 3771
Big Maa, 2015
Fiberglass, resin and granite dust
95" x 49" x 49"
TG 3705
Mother at the Forest, 2009
Acrylic on fiberglass, marble dust
59" diameter
TG 3716
The Rock Temple, 2007
Fiberglass, stone and cast iron
237" x 146" x 37"
TG 4295
Two Pots Under the Stars, 2022
Charcoal and acrylic on paper
22.75" x 22.75"
TG 4668
Under the sky, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
36.25" x 48"
TG 4158
House without Roof, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
60" x 48"
TG 4159
House of Guru, 2018
Acrylic on paper
21.75" x 28.25"
TG 4676
In Saving the Earth, 2017
Acrylic on Paper
39" diameter
TG 4153
Untitled, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
48" x 48"
TG 3717
Temple under the night Sky, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
60" x 47.75"
TG 3709
