P. Gnana paints, sculpts and creates conceptual installations, as one of Singapore’s leading artists. Indeed, he has obtained a highly-captivated audience in the Lion City and internationally, for the aesthetic and conceptual niche that he has created for himself within the ever-competitive dynamics of urban art-making. This, he continues to achieve, by constantly counter-challenging or taming the forces that urge him to dispel his obsessive fascination towards the cow, a recurring symbol in his art since 2007. It is a fact that exemplary paintings by Gnana are also in the collections of the President of the Republic of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum of the National Heritage Board. Gnana is a recipient of the LASALLE Scholarship of the LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore), from where he received his formal training in the art of painting. Gnana was granted the honour of being selected (in 2005) to undertake a project commissioned by Singapore’s ASCENDAS to create fourteen large-scaled paintings with an abstract expressionist motivation for the International Tech Park in Chennai. In 2013, one of Gnana’s larger-than-life sculptures made from recycled materials was acquired by National Parks Board (Singapore) to display in Fort Canning Park. His paintings have been auctioned as part of the Masterpiece Auction House’s Southeast Asian collection. P Gnana has also been awarded by the esteemed Bhaskar’s Arts Academy as CHITRA KALA NIPUNA.
Moving further into his affair with the cow in his art, Gnana obeyed his urge to venture into creating three-dimensional representations of his inspiration. The debut collection of Gnana’s charismatic sculptures was officially launched to the public via his eighth solo exhibition, The Eternal Cow: Sculptures and Paintings by P. Gnana, which was presented at the Singapore Philatelic Museum in early 2009.
Experimentation, serious and sometimes meditative, has been one of the key instruments that has shaped Gnana’s creative journey through the years, allowing him to rejuvenate in a world of constant change and fluctuating emotions. Gnana’s fascination towards the technique of collage in his paintings began in the first few years of his career. Today, collage is back in his art, but this time, on both sculpture and painting. For Gnana, collage is process-oriented with layers and layers of ideas, presenting him with fresh possibilities that emerge on the spur of the moment. With great confidence and an abundance of ideas, Gnana transforms the meaning and purpose of mundane, everyday objects into awe-inspiring expressions of urban relevance. In the same spirit, Gnana recycles and upcycles industrial materials, meticulously merging them with conventional media such as bronze and canvas, to resonate the comfort and co-existence between his almost metaphysical cow and the devoted human being.