Bio
Represented by Galerie ISA, Mumbai, India
Ricky Vasan is a representational painter from Dehradun, India currently based in Boston Massachusetts. He received his BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art & Design in 2023. and is currently a MFA candidate at the Rhode Island School of Design. Vasan has exhibited his work locally and internationally and recently was an artist in residence at Galerie ISA, Mumbai where he also had his debut solo exhibition in January 2024. Vasan has been a recipient of the George Nick award, The Rob Moore Grant in painting and The Kofi Kayiga auction award. His painting ‘Two Aliens Share a Beer’ was also awarded best in show for the Cambridge Art Association’s 2022 National Prize Show. Predominantly Vasan’s work focuses on domesticity and the celebration of the mundane. The minutiae of life serves as the artistʼs prelude. Through an autobiographical lens, Vasan works to create smaller narratives, showcasing moments, spaces and people that are personally significant, while also expanding on memory and nostalgia.
Artist Statement
My painting practice acts as an ever expanding memoir, through which I aim to represent and record my time and lived experiences. Be it large group affairs or the quietude that accompanies daily routines, it is in the specificity of these moments where I find it possible for the personal to be interwoven amidst a larger collective memory and conscience.
Yearning is the central feeling at the core of my practice and it is through my desire for wanting to linger indefinitely in certain moments and spaces that I arrive at the subject of my paintings. The narrative in my work is one that is affected by memory and the reality in the paintings exists somewhere between fact and fiction.
Spaces collapse, figures vibrate and objects are superimposed on top of one another. The resolution of these paintings comes from a search and the lines and swatches of colour act as the revelatory instruments. My process of building up a painting through constant revision and subtraction extends my experience with the fleeting moments that I choose to depict. Opening up possibilities for me to work through my own feelings of joy, loss and distance.
Education
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
MFA in Painting 2024-2026
Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, MA,
BFA in Painting (hons.) 2023
Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions
Solo Exhibition, 'Just A Little While Longer' Galerie ISA, Mumbai, India, 2024
Group Exhibition, Abu Dhabi Art booth with Galerie ISA, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2025
Group Exhibition, Art Mumbai booth with Galerie ISA, Mumbai, India, 2025
Group Exhibition, 'Smalls', Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA, 2025
Group Exhibition, 'RISD Painting Triennial', Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI, 2025
Group Exhibition, 'Non-Residency', Jaipur Centre for Art, Jaipur, India, 2025
Group Exhibition, 'Exhibitionism', Rajiv Menon Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA, 2025
Group Exhibition, India Art Fair booth with Galerie ISA, New Delhi, India, 2025
Group Exhibition, 'Big Fat South Asian Show', RISD Museum, Providence, RI, 2025
Group Exhibition, Art Mumbai booth with Galerie ISA, Mumbai, India, 2024
Group Exhibition, 'Miracle of Absence', Art Exposure, Kolkata, India, 2024
Group Exhibition, 'What is a Heart?', Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, MA, 2024
Group Exhibition, 'Second Sight', Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 2024
Group Exhibition, India Art Fair, booth with Galerie ISA, New Delhi, India, 2024
Group Exhibition, 'Now Streaming', Rajiv Menon Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA, 2024
Group Exhibition, 'BORDER(less)', MassartxSowa, Boston, MA, 2024
Group Exhibition, Art Mumbai booth with Galerie ISA, Mumbai, India, 2023
Group Exhibition, Fresh Faces, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA, 2023
Group Exhibition, 2022 National Prize Show,
Cambridge, MA 2022
Group Exhibition, George Nick Prize Show, Arnheim Gallery,
Boston, MA 2022
Group Exhibition, Between You and I, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA, 2022
Grants & Awards
Kirloskar Fellow, Rhode Island School of Design, 2025
Gelman Fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design, 2024
Artist in Residence, Galerie ISA, Mumbai, 2023
Kofi Kayiga Auction Award 2023
Cambridge Art Association, Best in Show, National Prize Show, 2022
George Nick Prize 2022
Rob Moore Grant in Painting 2022
Painting Foundation Award 2021
Studio Foundation Award 2020
Publication
New American Paintings, 'MFA Annua'l, November 2025
GoLocalProv, 'Meet Figurative Painter Ricky Vasan - Inside Art with Michael Rose', November 2024
Indian Express, 'Art curator Gayatri Sinha on her latest curatorial work in Kolkata', November 2024
Mint, 'The Ambitious Displays at India Art Fair 2024 Attracted Record Attendance', November 2024
Vogue India, '13 new art shows in India we’re excited about this November', November2024
Cultbytes, 'The Ambitious Displays at India Art Fair 2024 Attracted Record Attendance', February 2024
Architectural Digest India, '11 art exhibits not to miss at Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2024', January 2024
Southwest Magazine, '21 Under 31', September 2023
Sunday Mid-Day News, 'A Fair to Remember', November 2023
Artscope Magazine, 'Bodyscapes' February 2023