UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:

2025 Exhibition Calendar:

Main Gallery & Project Space:

FUGUE

NFN Kalyan

5 September - 1 November, 2025

Fugue functions as an abstract narrative. Though it does not follow any formal structure, at heart, it is a tragedy and the human race is its protagonist. Fugue begins quietly and builds to a cacophony before fading into discordant variations on the original theme. I am not a Hindu but i grew up surrounded by the stories and imagery of its polytheism. Rama, an avatar of Vishnu is a central player in Fugue. Vishnu is the protector of the universe, his various avatars serve a similar purpose. The woman in the series, Sita, is Rama’s wife and a goddess in her own right. Their relationship is held as one of the great relationships in Hindu myth. A second relationship illustrated in Fugue is between Rama and his friend, Hanuman, the monkey god. Hanuman functions as an allegory for loyalty and selflessness. Consider these gods in the context of the world we live in. These true, beautiful beings contrast with the harsh reality of life. They represent the things we have lost and the qualities we can’t even remember ever having existed. We have distorted ourselves into amnesia.

-NFN Kalyan

Exhibition Statement:

This exhibition statement was written using A.I., synthesized from a compilation of notes, conversations via email, text messages, and

phone calls between artist, NFN Kalyan and gallery director, John Brunelli over the course of 6 months (January - June 2025)

This 16-piece series presents an abstract narrative meditating on the erosion of the human soul, as seen through the eyes of Indian gods. Rather than following a conventional plot, the work unfolds as an emotional progression—an atmosphere of loss, detachment, and confrontation with forces far beyond human control. The gods serve as both witnesses and participants, and their divine presence becomes increasingly fractured as they respond to the weight of humanity’s decline. The mythic figure of Lord Hanuman, the monkey god and embodiment of loyalty and bravery, appears as a recurring motif—first steadfast and unshaken, later increasingly isolated. His evolving emotional state becomes a lens for understanding a broader collapse: of spirituality, of environment, of social fabric, and of meaning itself. In early works like Eden, Prometheus, and Pandora, the presence of Ram, Sita, and others recalls a moment of divine clarity. But even these are tinged with foreboding. The gods look toward the future, silently aware of what lies ahead. As the series progresses, pieces such as N95, Pequod, and Pope Innocent X (after Bacon after Velázquez) depict a more fractured, polluted world—where technology, environmental decay, and moral ambiguity render the divine powerless or grotesquely altered. A hidden narrative takes shape. Events happen “offscreen,” leaving only the gods’ expressions and absences as proof. By the final quarter, the focus shifts fully to humanity—not in representation, but in absence. What remains is the echo of what was lost: a warning, a eulogy, a mirror. While deeply rooted in Indian mythology, this series also draws heavily from Western visual and literary traditions, including references to classical painting, Western philosophy, and modern disillusionment. Titles like Icarus,Field Trip, and Remembrance intentionally bridge cultural frameworks, placing Eastern deities in Western crises, both symbolically and stylistically. The resulting tension between traditions is not only aesthetic, but thematic: the sacred housed within the profane; the eternal filtered through contemporary decay. Technological advancement—especially the encroachment of artificial intelligence—lurks in the background and sometimes on the surface. Figures bear added fingers, AI-generated imperfections, or digital warping. But the series avoids moral judgment, instead inviting viewers to sit with unease. It does not indict AI, but warns of technology’s unchecked adoption and our collective surrender to artificial forms of wisdom, emotion, and memory. Themes of violence, environmental collapse, addiction, materialism, and alienation surface repeatedly, but never didactically. Instead, they emerge as fragments—part of a shattered mirror reflecting a species at odds with itself and its creators. Structured in four loose "eras," each grouping of paintings captures a different stage in this emotional arc. Though not presented chronologically in the gallery space, a pamphlet provides that timeline for those who wish to explore it. The thirteenth piece, placed deliberately or intuitively, serves as a rupture—either the eye of the storm or the event horizon. Ultimately, this body of work confronts the fear of being alone in a changed world—a world that continues without the guidance of those we have lost. It is about what happens when gods grow silent, when faith fractures, and when memory becomes all we have left.

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