Matthew Krishanu

Matthew Krishanu (b. 1980) is a London-based painter whose work merges autobiography, memory, and art history. Using layers of acrylic and oil, he creates pared-back compositions – often drawn from family photographs – where figures inhabit shallow, ambiguous spaces. Themes of childhood, religion, race, and power are refracted through his upbringing between Bangladesh, India, and the United Kingdom, situating personal experience within wider legacies of empire.

Krishanu’s long-running Another Country series features two boys (the artist and his brother) often in vast landscapes, while his Mission series (2012–ongoing) recalls church interiors and clergy, in particular his father, who worked as a priest for the Church of Bangladesh. A major institutional exhibition, The Bough Breaks, at Camden Art Centre (2024) brought these strands together, entwining family imagery, biblical motifs, and expansive banyan trees to reflect on how personal and collective histories persist.

His work has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at Camden Art Centre, London (2024); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2019); Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (2019); and Huddersfield Art Gallery (2018). His work has been also been featured in several group shows, including Life is More Important Than Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023); Dhaka Art Summit (2023); Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London (2021); the John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2021); and Everyday Heroes, Southbank Centre, London (2020). Krishanu’s paintings are held in the collections of Arts Council Collection, the Government Art Collection, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection / EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (Finland), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi), and Komechak Art Gallery (Chicago), among others. Krishanu studied Fine Art and English Literature at the University of Exeter, and completed an MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London.