Kavitha Balakrishnan

Dr. Kavitha Balakrishnan (Malayalam: കവിത ബാലകൃഷ്ണൻ; born June 1, 1976) is an art critic, poet [2], contemporary art researcher, art painter and art curator. She started her teaching career as a lecturer of Art History at College of Fine Arts Trivandrum from 1998 to 1999. She later lectured at the R.L.V. College of Music and Fine Arts in Thrippunithura and as a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Mumbai. Balakrishnan is currently a lecturer in Art history and Aesthetics at the Govt. College of Fine Arts in Thrissur. Kerala State, India.

Balakrishnan received her Master's degree in Fine Art History and Aesthetics in 1998 from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Then she produced a research thesis on the practice of literature-oriented illustrations in Malayalam periodicals' for which she was awarded Ph.D in 2009 from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

At the age of 13 she received the Soviet Land Nehru Award for Painting while she spent the summer at the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, Ukraine (former Soviet Union) at Artek (camp)'s Inter National Young Pioneer Camp.

Her book keralathile chitrakalayude varthamanam won the state awardfor the best book on art in Malayalam in 2007 from Lalitha kala academy. She has also been awarded the SBT sahitya puraskaram in 2005 and an Ayyappan puraskaram for poetry in 2007.

Poems

• Angavaalulla Pakshi (Rainbow Book Publishers Chengannur, 2004)
• Njan Hajarundu (DC Books Kottayam,2007).
• Kavithayude Kavithakal (INDULEKHA ,2017).

Art

• Keralathile Chitrakalayude Varthamanam, Rainbow Book Publishers, Chengannur 2007. A collection of articles on 20th-century art practices in Kerala, serialized by the periodical Madhyamam weekly in 2003
• Adhunika Keralathile Chitrakala (The Present of Art in Kerala), Kerala state Language Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, 2007.
• ARTEK anubhavangal (on her visit to former U S S R ), Vishwadarshan Publishers, 2003.

Articles on Contemporary Art published in English

'up close n personal'

A series of essays locating the trajectories of significant people in Contemporary art.

The column appears in a major websites for Indian Contemporary art.

Group shows

1.Soviet Information Hall, New Delhi, 1989.

2.Govt. Museum Art Gallery, Chandigarh 1995.

3.Women Artists in Kerala, curated show of women painters, Contemporary Art Gallery, Kochi.

4.‘South by Southwest’, Travencore House, New Delhi, 2007.

5.‘Ophelia’ a show of water colour works, Gallery OED, Kochi, 2007.

6.‘Hide and Seek’Gallery OED, Kochi, 2008.

7.'L'Mechine'Gallery OED, Kochi, 2009.

8.Trikana Matilakam Porulukal: Contemporary Art Project [1] ,Mathilakam 2015 [2]

Solo shows

1.Contemporary Art gallery, show sponsored by Kerala Lalith kala Academy.1997.