Education
2009
MA Fine Art — Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
2001
BA (Hons) Fine Art and English Literature — Exeter University
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Immerse, Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles
The Bough Breaks, Camden Art Centre, London
2023
On a Limb, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai
2022
Playground, Niru Ratnam Gallery, London
Undercurrents, LGDR, New York
2021
Arrow and Pulpit, Tanya Leighton, Berlin
2020
Picture Plane, Niru Ratnam Gallery, London
2019
Corvus: a painting installation, Iniva, London
House of Crows, Matt’s Gallery, London
The Sun Never Sets, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham
A Murder of Crows, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
2018
The Sun Never Sets, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Push Me, Pull You, Thomas Dane, Naples, curated by Jenni Lomax
A Room Hung with Thoughts — British Painting Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas
I AM ME, Cartwright Hall, Bradford
2024
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting, The Box, Plymouth
2023
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting, 1600 to Now, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
Life Is More Important Than Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London
A Voice Answering a Voice, Tanya Leighton, Berlin
Very Small Feelings, Kiran Nadar Art Museum, Delhi
Arcadia for All?, The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds
Dhaka Art Summit: Bonna, Dhaka
2022
The Kingfisher’s Wing, GRIMM, New York
Prophecy, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre
2021
Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London
Coventry Biennial, Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, Leamington Spa
John Moores Painting Prize 2020, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London
2020
Everyday Heroes, Hayward Gallery / Southbank Centre, London
Beyond Other Horizons, Iași Palace of Culture, Romania
A Rich Tapestry, Ikon / Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan
2019
New Figurations: Matthew Krishanu and Sosa Joseph, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India
And Beyond, New Art Projects, London
Childhood Now (with Chantal Joffe and Mark Fairnington), Compton Verney, Warwickshire
Made in Britain, The National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland
2018
John Moores Painting Prize 2018, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
In the City, East Gallery, Norwich; Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London
Highlights from the Permanent Collection, Komechak Art Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017
Contemporary Masters from Britain, Yantai Art Museum; Artall Gallery & Jiangsu Art Gallery, Nanjing; Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, China
2016
Aviary, Transition Gallery, London
Contemporary British Watercolours, Oriel Gallery, Antrim, N. Ireland
2015
Contemporary Drawings from Britain, XAFA, Xi'an Province, China
Collections
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Central Saint Martins (UAL), London
China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
Government Art Collection, UK
Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, China
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi, India
Komechak Art Gallery, Chicago
Priseman Seabrook Collection, UK
Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London
Tianjin Academy of Art, China
Yantai Art Museum, China
Talks/Podcasts
2025
Falling into Place, conversation with artist and writer Julian Bell, Royal Drawing School
2024
Brush and Paper, conversation with curator Isabel Seligman, Camden Art Centre, podcast
Painting Mission, conversation with Allie Biswas, Camden Art Centre
The Bough Breaks (video), Camden Art Centre
2023
A brush with... Matthew Krishanu – The Art Newspaper podcast, interview by Ben Luke, podcast
Matthew Krishanu: Painting About Religion, interview by David Trigg, podcast
2021
Figure and Ground (video) (Phoebe Boswell, Mandy El-Sayegh, Jake Grewal and Matthew Krishanu), Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room
2020
Everyday Heroes (video), Hayward Gallery / Southbank Centre
Artist talks: Camberwell College of Art, Goldsmiths College of Art, Falmouth College of Art, Nottingham Trent University
2019
Corvus, Stuart Hall Library, Iniva, London
The London Summer Intensive, Slade School of Fine Art/Camden Arts Centre
Studio Visit (podcast), interview by Morgan Quaintance, Resonance FM
All things corvid, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
The Sun Never Sets, interview by James Sandy, King of the Buttons Podcast
2018
Artist talk (video), John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Painting — People and Places, Huddersfield Art Gallery
Artist talk, Wimbledon College of Arts, MA Painting
2017
Decolonising Art Practice – Image and Identity, Chelsea College of Arts
The Immediacy of Paint: Surface, University of Suffolk, with Glenn Brown, Kim Anno, Chris Hawtin, Shaun Camp, Dr Matthew Bowman
2016
Curator Round Table, Studio Visit, presented by Morgan Quaintance, Resonance FM
2015
The Immediacy of Paint: The Role of Painting in the Digital Age (video), University of Suffolk
Artist talk, Institute of Education, MA Museums & Galleries in Education
2014
Artists' Talk (with Cara Nahaul), Another Country, The Nunnery, London
2010
Artist talk, Kala Bhavan College of Fine Arts, BA & MA Fine Art, Santiniketan, India
2008
Artist talk, Central Saint Martins, BA Criticism, Communication & Curation
Publications
2025
A Room Hung with Thoughts – British Painting Now, Tom Morton, ed. Thomas McMullan, Grace Tighe, Katherine Delony (Green Family Art Foundation), ISBN 9798992568004
2024
The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 3, edited by Anneke French, foreword by Matt Price, ISBN 978-1-910221-59-4
2023
Anomie. Ten Years of Independent Art Publishing, Edited by Anna McNay, ISBN 9781910221556
Beyond the Page (exhibition catalogue), 2023, Edited by Fay Blanchard and Anthony Spira, with contributions from Emily Hannam and Hammad Nasar, ISBN 9781781301258
Matthew Krishanu (monograph), Mark Rappolt, Ben Luke, Dorothy Price (Anomie Publishing), ISBN 9781910221334
Life Is More Important Than Art, Gilane Tawadros, Janette Parris, Whitechapel Gallery ISBN 9780854883196
Matthew Krishanu (monograph), Mark Rappolt, Ben Luke, Dorothy Price (Amomie Publishing), ISBN 9781910221334
2022
The Kingfisher’s Wing (catalogue), Tom Morton (GRIMM), ISBN 9789083188867
2021
Mixing It Up: Painting Today (catalogue), Ralph Rugoff, ISBN 9781853323744
The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 2, ISBN 9781910221273
John Moores Painting Prize 2020 (catalogue), Jennifer Higgie, ISBN 9781902700625
2020
Beyond Other Horizons (catalogue), Peter Harrap, Anna McNay, Florin Ungureanu, (Iasi Palace of Culture), ISBN 9786068547435
2019
Painting Childhood (catalogue), Amy Orrock and Jill Seaton, Compton Verney (Paul Holberton Publishing), ISBN 9781911300564
Matthew Krishanu: The Sun Never Sets, Jenni Lomax and Ruxmini Choudhury, Birmingham, Midlands Arts Centre, ISBN 9781907796234
2018
John Moores Painting Prize 2018 (catalogue), ISBN 9781902700601
The Sun Never Sets, Exhibition publication, Matt Price, Huddersfield Art Gallery
Contemporary British Painting Summer Exhibition, ISBN 1534870121
2015
Contemporary Drawings from Britain, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts
Contemporary British Watercolours, Simon Carter, ISBN 1515109925
The Brentwood Stations of the Cross, Simon Carter, ISBN 1505832063
2014
Priseman Seabrook Collection, ISBN 1514186772
In the City, Exhibition Publication, Robert Harbison, The Lion and Lamb
Iniva — The A-Z of Emotions, Emotional Learning Cards, ISBN 9781899846573
‘Another Country’, Exhibition publication, Skye Sherwin, Nunnery Gallery
2012
The Marmite Prize for Painting IV, ISBN 1905659105
2010
The Marmite Prize for Painting III, ISBN 1905659091
Selected Bibliography
2025
Five South Asian Artists in London, Maanav Jalan, Architectural Digest India
2024
Matthew Krishanu — Camden Art Centre, Zehra Jumabhoy, Artforum
The Bough Breaks, Paul Hills, Art + Christianity, No 118
The Bough Breaks, Edwin Coomasaru, Art Monthly, No 477
Matthew Krishanu, Beth Williamson, Studio International
Matthew Krishanu's Divine Paintings Reflect on Family, Religion, and Power Dynamic, Hettie Judah, Artsy
Interview with Matthew Krishanu, artist, Susan Gray, Church Times
In the studio with… Matthew Krishanu, Arjun Sajip, Apollo
Out on a Limb, Emily Steer, Plinth
Matthew Krishanu in the studio, Annabel Downes, OCULA
Matthew Krishanu: Painting the Postcolonial, Sofia Hallström, Art Basel
2023
Matthew Krishanu — On a Limb, Zeenat Nagree, ArtAsia Pacific
Matthew Krishanu — On a Limb Mario D’Souza, Artforum
Can painting ever bear the weight of grief?, Hettie Judah, Apollo
Life Is More Important Than Art: shows why we need art too, Ben Luke, Evening Standard
Life Is More Important Than Art review, Jessica Wall, The Upcoming
2022
Secrets of the Seesaw, Elizabeth Fullerton, The Guardian, November
The Kingfisher’s Wing at GRIMM, Annabel Keenan, Cultbytes, August
Undercurrents, Allie Biswas, LGDR
On Grief and Grieving, Morgan Quaintance, Art Monthly, April
On Sickert’s ability to paint an inner life, Matthew Krishanu, Tate Etc, January
2021
Mixing It Up: Painting Today Review, George Vasey, Burlington Contemporary, December
Mixing It Up: Painting Today Review, David Trigg, Art Review, November
Interview, Ben Luke, The Art Newspaper
Mixing It Up: Painting Today Review, Laura Cumming, The Guardian, September
Painting in Britain, Ben Luke, Evening Standard, September
Interview, David Trigg, Studio International, September
2020
Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition, Revd Jonathan Evens, Artlyst
Eight artists and writers pay tribute to their Everyday Heroes, Time Out
2019
'New Figurations: Matthew Krishanu and Sosa Joseph', Cleo Roberts, Jhaveri Contemporary
‘Corvus: A painting installation', Christine Takengny, Contemporary Art Society
'Between Skeletons and Sunsets', Cleo Roberts, ArtAsiaPacific
2018
‘A Q&A with Matthew Krishanu, painter’, Narbi Price, a-n
2017
Matthew Krishanu interview by Matt Price Fused Magazine
2016
Aviary exhibition wings its way to Transition Gallery, Russell Parton, East End Review
2014
An interview with Matthew Krishanu and Cara Nahaul, Wall Street International