- Artists
- Alwar Balasubramaniam
Alwar Balasubramaniam

Born
1971, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu
Based in
Near Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu
Practice & Materials
Sculpture and installations using earth, clay, stone, and organic matter
Key Themes
Material transformation, time, natural processes, dialogue with landscapes
Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala) works from a studio in rural Tamil Nadu, where his practice emerges from an intimate dialogue with the natural world and the landscape surrounding his home. Engaging directly with materials such as soil, clay, stone, and organic matter, his work evolves through sustained, hands-on interaction with process, time, and environment.
Featured work
Drift, 2026
Earth and resin
Not just for us, 2026
Earth, resin, and paddy grains
These two panels are created from earth sourced from the artist’s rural Tamil Nadu home, shaped through a collaboration with nature that he carefully initiates and guides. Formed by natural processes of drying and evaporation, their fractured surfaces record, over time, the dialogue between soil and water. The fissures speak of separation and renewal, echoing cycles of loss and return. The work reminds us that the ground beneath us is enduring yet vulnerable.
Note from
Alwar Balasubramaniam
“The work I have created continues my long-term exploration into the nature of the earth. It is the physical result of the bonding and a separation of earth and water. These forms emerge from the cracks created as water evaporates from the soil. The way the land drifts, segments, or becomes isolated serves as a symbol for our own fragmentation — the act of distancing ourselves from the whole or from one another. I don’t see it as a handoff between myself and nature; it is a true collaboration. In one sense, we are a part of nature ourselves, though often divided from it by our own egos.
I plan the work, but I remain open to the flow. I facilitate the depth and the ratio of water to clay, but the earth knows how to move and crack. I am simultaneously a part of the process and a witness to it, a labor of love where self and selflessness merge. The work extends from the front to the other side of the wall. One side features my intentional exploration of ‘drift’ and cracked earth. The other side, however, is a larger terrain that holds the imprints of many beings from our land. During the making of the work, peacocks, monkeys and snakes crossed the threshold and left their imprint on the work in process, serving as a reminder of earth as home - not just for us, but for all living things.”
Learn more about the curator’s perspective and the artist’s reflections

Artist biography
Education
- BFA, Government College of Arts, Chennai, 1995
Solo & Group Exhibitions
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
- Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
- Seattle Art Museum
- École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
- Lalbhai Museum, Ahmedabad
- Essl Museum, Austria
- National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
- 1st Singapore Biennale
- 18th Sydney Biennale
- 13 solo exhibitions at Talwar Gallery, New York & New Delhi since 2002





