Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

September 24 2015 , by Penelope Benton

Currently based in Lidcombe, Western Sydney, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran's multi-disciplinary practice spans sculpture, ceramics, painting, drawing and installation.

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1988, and is currently based in Lidcombe, Western Sydney. He has a BA (UNSW), BFA (Hons. Class 1) and a Master of Fine Arts (research) from UNSW Art & Design. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Freedman Foundation Travelling Art Scholarship and has since acquired various grants including ArtStart, as well as the City of Sydney’s William Street Creative Tenancy. He has exhibited at various spaces including Firstdraft, UTS Gallery, Alaska Projects, The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Galleries UNSW, Artspace and Canberra Contemporary Art Space. He has been a finalist in the Blake Prize (2013) and the John Fries Award (2014) and was recently awarded the 2014 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (emerging) administered through Arts NSW, and the Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Art Award in 2015. Ramesh is represented by Gallery 9.

His work is focused upon the construction of a celebratory, phallocentric discourse that spans Eastern and Western religious, pornographic, digital and historical contexts, particularly, through a multi-disciplinary practice that spans sculpture, painting, drawing and installation.

Ramesh chats to NAVA about his success to date, projects he is currently working on, the process of becoming an artist, and how he believes art can create social change.