ARTIST STATEMENT

I have been fascinated by the natural world for as long as I can remember. My work expresses my convictions and uncertainties about our place on the planet as human beings and our relationship with other life-forms. I read a lot about evolutionary biology and tend to seek out  perspectives and insights from scientists as much as from fellow artists. I believe in living slowly. My space of slow exploration for the last 10 years has been a small part of the southernmost tip of Africa - home to the world's smallest biome. The fragility of the life-cycles and the depths of interconnectedness that I have been able to witness in this region - from flies and shrubs to kelp and orcas - have compelled my artistic production. Drawing has been a way for me to show appreciation for the living planet.

In the act of drawing, I seek to record what we may lose and have already lost in this swiftly transforming human-centered planet. At the same time, my work also seeks to invite a meditation on the details of our environment that we tend to rush past. In the artistic traditions I invoke - from the Indian miniaturist tradition, the aesthetic of Buddhist Thangka paintings to the botanical and natural history illustrations that once belonged to the realm of science - I also consider how as humans we have always produced meditations through art that call for a re-imagining of reality.

As we hurtle towards the 6th mass extinction, I find myself creating likenesses of the rare and wonderful lifeforms on earth. I am trying to commemorate and immortalize their existence through my works.

ABOUT

Sujay Sanan (b. 1983) is an artist living and working from Cape Town, South Africa. He was born and raised in India, and graduated from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Thereafter he co-founded a graphic design studio. After a few years of client-based projects he decided to pursue a path as an independent artist. For the past decade his work has engaged with natural history and the relationships between the living and non-living world. Often spanning the course of a year, each new body of work is created with a deliberate study of both medium and narrative. He has employed the use of inks, watercolour pigments, acrylics, graphite, and various pens.

Since 2016, Sujay has had 4 solo exhibitions and participated in a number of group shows. He has collaborated with partners like Wavescape and the WWF to raise funds for conservation through his artworks. His drawing of a Southern Right whale and her calf was selected to be a part of South Africa’s 4th decimal circulation coins launched in 2023, and is now impressed on the 5 rand coin. With over a hundred and fifty original paintings sold, Sujay’s work is now in collections in nine countries (Australia, India, South Africa, United States of America, Austria, Norway, Germany, Switzerland). When he is not creating beautiful things, Sujay is also an avid rock climber, an acoustic guitar player and a devoted father.