Matthew Krishanu was born in Bradford in 1980 and lives and works in London. Krishanu’s paintings and drawings are often of solitary figures, self-consciously posed and contemplative, with a sense of interior life. Narratives are created by placing them within sparse interiors, with objects that act like props – creating a character or setting a scene. Krishanu also paints scenes inspired by his childhood in Bangladesh and for several years he has been documenting London crows, capturing the minutiae of their lives.
In Autumn 2019, Krishanu’s flock of crows, rooks, jackdaws and ravens took refuge in the Stuart Hall Library for the exhibition Corvus. Painted singly and never in flight, the almost anthropomorphic birds were inspired by crows in art and literature as well as bird watching in England and crows present in Krishanu’s childhood in Bangladesh.
Krishanu devised and led the collaborative project The Mausoleum of Lost Objects at Iniva (2008). The project resulted in an exhibition at Iniva, inspired by objects that people have lost or had stolen. The art works commemorated and celebrated the missing objects, and the stories behind their disappearance.
Matthew completed an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2009. His work is held in the Arts Council Collection, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, Ikon Gallery and Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing. He has been exhibited in group exhibitions including ‘And Beyond’ New Art Projects (2019), ‘Too Cute!’ Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (2019), ‘Childhood Now’ Compton Verney (2019) and ‘Made in Britain’ The National Museum in Gdańsk (2019). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘House of Crows’, Matt’s Gallery (2019), ‘The Sun Never Sets’, Midlands Arts Centre (2019) and ‘A Murder of Crows’, Ikon Gallery (2019).