Anavi Mullick

(b. 1998, Bangalore, Karnataka)

My paintings stem from an inner search for connection. In the last few years, I have moved between Bangalore, Minneapolis, Ballyvaughan (Ireland), and California. In each place, I sought a sense of belonging, trying to make it feel like home. I investigate the sense of isolation I initially felt and how my perspective changed, from fearing aloneness to being comfortable in solitude and longing for connection. My work includes watercolor and large-scale oil paintings. I paint a small figure on a large ground, using a monochromatic colour scale and large areas of flat-toned colour to create a sense of vast, endless space, a sort of void. I aim to make the paintings feel timeless, with little or no visual cues indicating time or place. My compositions come from observing people as I travel. I note certain people that stand out to me, writing down details (their clothes, hairstyles, things they carry, emotions) and creating fictional stories about their lives influenced by my own thoughts, beliefs and wishes. I paint these strangers, finding comfort in depicting my personal narrative through them, knowing I’m not alone. We are together in our aloneness. I seek empathy for my aloneness through my paintings by depicting a figure in an isolated and unknown space.

Anavi Mullick is an artist and art teacher based in Bangalore. She completed her BFA in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Teaching Art from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minnesota, U.S.A (2020), with a semester abroad at Burren College of Art, Ireland (2019). Her works explore themes of belonging and self-identity, relating to her existence and relationship to the place. In her series ‘i see you, i see me,’ she investigates feelings of isolation— from fearing it to being comfortable in solitude while longing for connection. She paints people she observes around the city, building empathy for each figure. The slow process of layering watercolours or oils, allows her to gradually unveil and develop a connection with her subject. Her paintings are a homage to her connection with the people she paints, not mere documentations of her observations. Placing figures against flat, empty backgrounds, often faceless or turned away, she creates space for viewers to project themselves on the canvas and empathise with the figures, forming their own narratives. Thus her works become a mirror, reflecting the viewer's imagination.

Her recent exhibitions include ‘The Pollen Waits on Tiptoe,’ curated by Manasa Raj, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore (2024); the ‘Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Exhibition’, Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi (2024); "Abir First Take, Ahmedabad (2023); ‘Living a Dark Night’, Kala Chaupal, Travelling Exhibition at Gallery Espace, India Art Fair among others (2021-22); ‘Apart/Together,’ Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis, among others.

Anavi currently lives and works in Bangalore.

Anavi Mullick

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