Amjum Rizve

Amjum Rizve (b. 1992, Kannur, Kerala, India) is a contemporary Indian artist whose richly textured, surreal works weave together myth, memory, ornament, and abstraction into immersive visual narratives that blur the boundaries between tradition and the hyper-contemporary. Rizve completed his BFA in Painting from Trivandrum Fine Arts College (2013) and his MVA in Painting at Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore (2018), grounding his practice in rigorous academic training while developing a voice that freely engages with layered imagery and experimental techniques.

Rizve’s art draws on a wide range of influences—Islamic decorative art, **mosaic traditions, Persian and Mughal miniatures, Japanese aesthetics, and contemporary visual culture—creating work that feels both ancient and futuristic. His compositions often feature intricate detailing, vibrant colour, and a layering of materials including wood, cloth, beads, glitter, and paint, generating dream-like landscapes where symbolic figures and ornament converge into evocative, tactile worlds.

His work has been exhibited widely across India, with participations in group shows at Gallery Veda (Chennai), Durbar Hall Art Gallery (Ernakulam), BC Gallery (Kochi), and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2021–22), among others. He has also presented in Chennai, Hyderabad, and beyond, and his practice has been recognized with the HRD Ministry of Culture Young Artist Scholarship (2017) and the Kerala Diamond Jubilee Fellowship (2019–20)—acknowledgments that underscore his evolving presence in contemporary art circles.

Rizve’s debut solo exhibition റ (Ra)—presented by Gallery Dotwalk at Bikaner House, New Delhi—invited viewers into key landscapes of his youth in northern Kerala, transforming everyday precincts like mosques, dargahs, sacred groves, and paddy fields into ornamental, epiphanic tableaux that reflect both personal memory and collective imagery.

Living and working in Trivandrum, Kerala, Amjum Rizve continues to expand his visual language through elaborate, hybrid compositions that fuse decorative craftsmanship with incisive contemporary thought, creating work that is at once poetic, immersive, and deeply resonant with cultural history and modern sensibilities.