Three Steps of Land

Onam, Kerala's state festival, celebrates King Mahabali, a powerful, but overconfident emperor who was banished to the underworld for the threat he posed to the gods. Once a year, like Persephone of Greek Mythology, Mahabali is said to return, bringing joy and prosperity with him. In the spirit of Mahabali's return, Rajiv Menon Contemporary presents an exhibition bringing the creativity and ingenuity of Kerala to Los Angeles.

As any Keralite can tell you, there's no place on Earth like God's Own Country. The region's landscapes and atmosphere are a rich aesthetic experience in their own right. Yet even in its geographic and cultural singularity, Kerala has also been a global crossroads; as a key site in the Indian Ocean's trading routes, Kerala has been the center of the world at many times in history.

Kerala is increasingly a major hub of contemporary art in South Asia, with both local perspective and global significance. This exhibition articulates the rise of a major aesthetic force in the global art landscape. Beyond just figurative and landscape work that presents the region in a literal way, Three Steps of Land evokes the spirit of the region, finding new emotional and aesthetic touchpoints that reveal the universal appeal of regional specificity.

Featured artists: Abul Hisham, Devi Seetharam, Lakshmi Madhavan, Maya Varadaraj, Melissa Joseph, Nibha Akireddy, Nityan Unnikrishnan, Par Nair, Saju Kunhan, Sivasubramaniam Kajendran, Surendran Nair