The Salts of Many Seas Emami Art

The solo exhibition, ‘The Salts of Many Seas’, showcases Ali Akbar P N's recent artworks, including paintings, photographs, sculptures, digital prints, a video, and a book. Ali Akbar is a contemporary artist born in Kerala and based in Vadodara, Gujarat. Ali Akbar's thematic preoccupations traverse the delicate terrain of memory, identity, local and global historical narratives, and the socio-political undercurrents pervading contemporary politics of the subcontinent. 

Ali Akbar deftly interweaves archival research, site-specific explorations, and an acute sensitivity to contemporary socio-politics in his artistic practice. Drawing upon historical artefacts, architectural relics, and socio-political events, the artist endeavours to unravel the intricate layers of syncretic space while grappling with the spectre of its gradual erosion and loss.

The intercontinental connections forged through ancient trade links are central to his thematic engagements. By navigating through the history of the oceans and the history of the land, he tries to look at how the political and cultural dynamics have been changing in the past few years. Ali Akbar's visual lexicon is characterised by a striking blend of the real and the speculative. His paintings, with erased brush strokes, torn surfaces and often resembling partially damaged archival photographs, invoke an intriguing sense and curiosity.

His digital prints and evocative video installations, with the non-linear narrative and their enigmatic juxtapositions of temporally disparate subjects, create a realm of imaginary and contested historical episodes. They create an ambiguous sense of time, poignantly critiquing the dominant archival paradigms and challenging conventional notions of truth, agency, and archival privilege. The sculptures are a subtle remark on the unusual modes of material exchanges practised in the mercantile world in the bygone era.  

Artist’s Bio
Ali Akbar P N was born in 1996 in Koolimuttam, Central Kerala. He completed MVA in Painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Gujarat, in 2020 and BFA in Painting from the Government College of Fine Arts Thrissur, Kerala, in 2018. Akbar was selected by an eminent jury for the first award at the annual all-India open call awards and exhibition, IMAGINARIUM 2.0 at Emami Art Kolkata 2022, and he participated in the IMAGINARIUM 3.0 Residency at Emami Art in 2024.

He has participated in many exhibitions, including All That is Hidden: Mapping Departures in Landscape, Terrains and Geographies, Emami Art, Kolkata, 2024; Fault Lines: Visual Symptoms of Discordances in Indian History at Conflictorium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Embark, 2023, Baroda; India Art Fair 2023; Baroda Anuelle 2023, Gallery White Vadodara; Architecture Digest Design Show in December, Mumbai, 2022; From Where All That Sweat? , Trivandrum 2022; The Flying Goat Show, Goa 2022; Open Studio, Baroda 2021; Untitled III Online Exhibition, Priyasri Art Gallery Mumbai 2020; Nasreen Mohammedi Studio Display, MSU Baroda 2019 – 2020; Prologue 18 Final Display, Govt. College of Fine Arts Thrissur 2018; Kala Mela Art Exhibition, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi 2018; Group Show in Onyx Art Gallery, Kochi 2017; Charcoal Group Art Exhibition, Calicut 2017; Kasthuri Sreenivasan Trust Annual Show, Coimbatore 2017.