Siri Devi Khandavilli

Siri Devi Khandavilli is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice fluidly bridges tradition and innovation, drawing deeply from Indian artistic legacies while engaging in a broader contemporary dialogue. Working across sculpture, painting, and printmaking, she dissolves boundaries between disciplines to explore themes of cultural migration, feminism, ecology, mythology, and the nature of reality. Khandavilli’s artistic foundation was shaped from an early age at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, where she later earned an MFA in Sculpture (2016). She also holds a BFA and an MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University (2003, 2009) and trained under the esteemed temple sculptor Pandiyan in Kumbakonam. This diverse education informs a practice that is both meticulous and experimental, embracing elements of chance while also reflecting on history, tradition, and transformation. 

A recurring motif in her work is the act of mirroring—both literally and conceptually. Her pursuit of the “perfect image” led her to invent a mirror finish on her canvases, blurring the distinction between painting and reflection. The image on the canvas is constantly being created in the present yet carries memories and imprints of the past. She also engages in an ongoing exploration of the tension between control and unpredictability, a theme that permeates her sculptural practice. Her methods, mediums, contexts, and surfaces destabilize singular readings, inviting layered interpretations that oscillate between the apparent and the subversive. She believes that an artwork is never about just one thing but rather about everything happening in the world at the time of its creation, as the artist is thinking and experiencing it all simultaneously.

Her recent group exhibitions with Art Centrix Space include, India Art Fair (2025, 2024 & 2020); ‘Art Mumbai (2024); ’Intimate Distance’, curated by Alnoor Mitha, Main Art Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi (2024); MATRIX’: succinct ecosystems of through’ (2023); ‘A Collective Wisdom’, ‘Our Line in the Sand’ (2022) and ‘Beyond the Recurring Motif’ (2019) etc. Other recent exhibitions include ‘Shaping a Life of Curiosity’, Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2025); ‘Canyon: From Dreams to Memory, Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2024); ’The Toilets, Geographies of Desire: (a) site and (b) situation’, Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Hebbar Foundation (2018); ‘Selfie Queen’, Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2018); ‘Tell Me Why, Tell Me Why, Tell Me Why (Why Can't We Live Together?), Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2017); ‘The New Animist’, Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona (2016); ‘Not in my Name’, Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2015); ‘13 works you'll be lucky to see this summer’, Lisa Sette Gallery, Arizona (2015); Art Miami, U.S.A. (2014) among others.

Currently she is working towards her solo exhibition with Art Centrix Space scheduled for January 2026.

Her works are housed in several distinguished institutions and collections, including the Albertina Museum (Austria), Durham University Museum (UK), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, USA; Fidelity Art Collection; ASU Art Museum, USA; Queens Museum, USA; ESSL Museum, Austria; and others. She has participated in multiple editions of Art Basel Miami (2013, 2014, 2015) and has exhibited internationally at Indigo Blue Art Gallery, Singapore and beyond.

Splitting her time between New Delhi and New York, Khandavilli navigates a transnational space where many experiences overlap, creating a body of work that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.