Rahul Kumar Becomes Rockfeller Foundation‘s 2025 Bellagio Resident
Rockefeller Foundation announced Rahul Kumar as the 2025 Bellagio Resident. He is one of the 105 residents who will connect, collaborate, and develop innovative solutions, essential for the world’s transformation.
Who is Rahul Kumar?
Rahul Kumar is a Delhi-based ceramicist, curator, and writer. His masterpieces are built upon abstract themes, which chronicle opposing forces and the duality of existence. He has created artworks in myriad scales; from 3 feet to just 1 inch.
He has hosted nine solo exhibitions in the US and India. He teaches advanced ceramics at his private studio in Gurgaon. He writes on culture for leading Indian publications such as Canvas Magazine, India Today, and TAKE on Art. He was the Editor (Arts) at STIR and had previously served as the consulting editor for Arts Illustrated. He was a consulting editor for Mint-Lounge, Vogue, and NDTV’s art venture.
Rahul Kumar’s Education
Rahul Kumar earned his MFA from the United States through a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008. He was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) grant for research in the UK in 2013. During his time in the UK, he resided and worked from British ceramicist Walter Keelers’ home studio in a Welsh village. There he learnt Keeler’s distinctive salt firing technique. The CWIT grant enhanced his technical abilities, broadening his perspective on clay.
Rahul Kumar’s artworks are held in prominent collections such as the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India Habitat Centre Art Collection, Jatin Das Centre of Art, and the University of Dallas in Texas, USA.
What do Artist Rahul Kumar’s Ceramics Connote?
In the beginning, pottery came as a challenge to Kumar. At the time, pottery’s main aim was to craft functional pots; making practical vessels. Over time, he was transfixed with the pot’s shape and character. It was when the utility and function became less important.
Rahul Kumar balances wheel throwing and slab construction to cultivate a fresh creative perspective that highlights the medium’s contrast– wheel-thrown pots symbolize symmetry and rigidity, while hand-built elements demonstrate clay’s organic and fluid qualities. Working with clay enables him to transcend the intellectual and rational aspects; reconnecting with his spontaneous, instinctive, and often quite simple core.
Rahul Kumar’s Body City
Rahul Kumar’s Body City series is an abstract interpretation of a city. When seen from the top, it resembles an aerial view, characterized by a grid-like framework, intersecting lines, patches, and elevations. When looked at with a magnifying glass, it suggests a microscopic view of veins, muscles, tissues, and cells. The grid is a metaphor for the body as a city, and vice versa.
Rahul Kumar constructed architectural blocks from clay that feature a diptych aspect. Each block in the series includes a second element, a skeletal framework made of welded iron rods. It highlights the exquisite play of light and shadow. The gold leaf sections ironically allude to value and preciousness. This work stands at a stark contrast between geometric forms with organic shapes and artificial structures with industrial elements.
Rahul Kumar’s Original Shadows
In Rahul Kumar’s Original Shadows, you will witness the imagery of a panoramic view of Earth or a magnified depiction of the human body. He is inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, which celebrates imperfections by embellishing cracks with pure gold. He subjected the clay pieces to a rapid firing schedule to create surface cracks.
Rahul Kumar at the Indian Ceramic Triennale
In 2018, he participated in the inaugural Indian Ceramic Triennale held in Jaipur. Along with Chetnaa, Rahul Kumar created an expansive monochromatic installation. It consists of 220 textured disc-shaped components that vary in size, height, and angle. The jaali (screen) embraces the gold and blue highlights, representative of a lost heritage juxtaposed with contemporary rigidity. The map-like city grid overlays the installation. The entire installation evokes familiarity and strangeness simultaneously.
Artist Rahul Kumar’s Accolades
Rahul Kumar’s red-glazed miniatures were auctioned at Sotheby’s London in 2012. He is a three-time recipient of the AIFACS National Award in 2014, he received the Junior Fellowship from the Government of India for excellence in Visual Arts. Rahul is a grantee of the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). A large ceramic installation was featured at the India Art Fair in 2015 as part of a special curated project, funded by the IFA.
Rahul Kumar won the 2025 Business World Art Excellence Award. One notable collaboration included working with RAQS Media Collective for their solo exhibit at the NGMA, New Delhi.
Image – Installation view of The Untold Resides Somewhere. Courtesy – Exhibit320
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