Information — Siya Kumar

Siya Kumar (b. 2002, Bangalore, India) is a visual artist based in Providence, RI and Bangalore, India.

Her work grows from the impossibility of fully grasping any single, fixed meaning. The pieces begin from ideas that she accepts as true, and develop into a map of internal logics that remain open and ever-changing, instead rejecting closed systems. They remain deliberately negotiable—more web than wall. Through painting, object-making and performance, she traces and collects these ideas, giving shape to their shifting forms. She reassembles them, not in search for final answers, but to honour what resists meaning. This inquiry is about creating a body of work that generates its own questions and suggests its own propositions.

Siya is drawn to the subtlety of dust and moss, windows and staircases, notes in margins, and loose interpretations of musical notes. She views them as inscriptions that have not been deciphered, and portals that represent openings to inner and outer worlds.

Siya likes how one might hold a piece of moss in their hands, or look at it spread across a plane, yet is still unable to completely understand its secrets, or know its inhabitants that wander through its many surfaces. Moss is a labyrinth, a living network. It is a document of time, recording its history in its many layers. It continues to grow and change, persisting with little need for light, oxygen, or water.

Her materials include:
Canvas, Nylon, Paint, Buttons, Tape, Film, Warm Lightbulbs, Cherry Wood Stain, Dirt, Moss, Buttons, Sound, Tape.

Contact

siyakumar15@gmail.com
+1 (516)-806-8770

CV

Education

2020 - 2025
2020

Group Shows

2025
2025
2025
2025
2025
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023
2023
2022

Awards

2025
2022 - 2024
2020
2019

Publications

2024 - 2025
2022
2020

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, US
A Levels, Mallya Aditi International School, Bangalore, KA, IN

“The Last Picture Show” - Memorial Hall, Providence, RI
“[See] [Saw] [Sound] [Wave]” - Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art, Fall River, RI
“Boston-Wide” - Harvard Gallery, Boston, MA
“Designated Smoking Area, Painting Senior Show” - Woods Gerry, Providence, RI
“The Big Fat South Asian Show” - Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI
“Textiles Triennial” - Woods Gerry, Providence, RI
“ChipWitch” - Memorial Hall, Providence, RI
“Junior Show” - Memorial Hall, Providence, RI
“Major Survey Show” - Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI
“Paper Tides" - Waterman Gallery, Providence, RI
“Brown SASA’s Annual Culture Show" - Saloman Gallery, Providence, RI
“Painting A Day" - Memorial Hall, Providence, Rhode Island

Florence Leif Award, RISD Department of Painting
Student Honor Roll, RISD Academic Affairs
CreA(R)Te RMZ Foundation National Award
Vijaya Raju & Rajkumar Sociology Award

RISD Undergraduate Viewbook for Prospective Students
V-1, Text and Image Issue
The Sunday Standard, “Nothing Else Matters” by Nayare Ali

Siya Kumar