Through sculpture, painting, printmaking, and photography, I begin with observation and explore memory, place, and perception, guided by reflection and imagination.
About
Seattle-based artist Kannan M. Krishnan works across sculpture, painting, photography, printmaking, and drawing. His work begins with careful observation, deepens through reflection, and is completed by imagination. Moving between abstraction and representation, he explores structure, memory, movement, place, and perception with an openness to surprise, ambiguity, and quiet humor.
Central to his sculptural practice is Ori-hagane (“folded steel”), a system he developed to construct three-dimensional forms from flat stainless-steel sheets without welding. Through interlocking elements and the active use of negative space, these works investigate balance, tension, interdependence, and transformation.
Born and raised in India and shaped by decades in Berkeley and Seattle, Krishnan's work is informed by engineering, literature, travel, and lived cultural experience. Recent recognition includes selection to the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Public Art Roster (2025) and the Percival Plinth Project in Olympia, Washington (2026–2027).
Artist Statement
Observation has always been the starting point of my work. The longer I look, the more I discover that the world is richer, more ambiguous, and more interconnected than it first appears. The places I have lived and the cultures I have encountered continue to shape the way I see the world. Reflection allows ideas to mature until intuition and imagination transform them into visual form, often through metaphor, ambiguity, and an occasional touch of humor. I observe through my senses, think through my mind, and comprehend through my imagination; the medium simply becomes the one that best serves that process. Whether working in sculpture, painting, photography, printmaking, or collage, I hope my work invites others to slow down, look carefully, and discover something they had not seen before.
One expression of this way of working is Ori-hagane ("folded steel," in Japanese), a sculptural system I developed to construct three-dimensional forms from flat stainless-steel sheets without welding. Through interlocking elements and the active use of negative space, these works explore how relationships give rise to balance, tension, interdependence, and transformation.