RAVI MORYA
b. 1992, IndiaRavi Morya’s artworks invite slow contemplation, creating a space for viewers to reflect on the passing of time, shared human experience and personal memory. Using collage, drawing, painting and erasing, repetition and layering are important to his artistic practice.
Early Years
Ravi Morya was born in Gwalior in 1992 and gained his BFA from Raja Mansingh Tomar Music and Arts University in 2015. A memory from his childhood of his mother stitching together waste pieces of cloth to create a winter blanket influenced Morya to use layers in his artworks.
Ravi Morya: Artworks
Ravi Morya brings the often unnoticed parts of our environments into his artwork, allowing both himself and viewers to become more aware of our urban surroundings. His practice is very much about process, and this in turn is informed by what is around him, and by memory. He has said that he tries to create chaos in his surroundings in order to try “to reduce the space between me and my painting” The surfaces of his works retain the evidence of his labours, through drawing and partially erasing forms, or layering collages. Morya does not produce sketches before he begins a work; instead, his art changes according to the materials he has available, whether this is paper, drawing or pages from books and magazines.
Morya’s 2024 solo exhibition, Submerged Memories, took childhood memory as a starting point—the works, all Untitled, are paper and acrylic collages from which the eventual image gently emerges, rather than being immediately obvious.
In What Surface Remembers a 2026 solo exhibition, Morya reflects on urban existence: “His canvases become sites of feeling, holding, exposing, and remembering the chaos around him.” The surfaces of his works absorb both experience and environment.
Ravi Morya: Select Awards
- Young Artist Scholarship (Indian Ministry of Culture) (2018)
- All India Award, State Gallery of Hyderabad (2019)
- Praffula Dhanukar State award (2018 and 2021)
- Cima Gallery Jury award (2022)
Ravi Morya: Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- What Surface Remembers, Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune (2026)
- Submerged Memories, Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata (2024)
- Beyond the Cascade, Triveni Art Gallery, Delhi (2017)
- A Few Frames, Tansen Kala Vithika, Gwalior (2016)
Select Group Exhibitions
- Iterations, Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune (2024)
- Beneath the Surface, Method Juhu, Mumbai (2023)
- Natura Urbana, Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, Delhi (2023)
- Yours in Truth, Space 118, Mumbai (2022)
- Dreaming of Genesis, Round Them Oranges, Jaipur (2022)
- Cima Art Gallery Annual Show Cima Gallery, Kolkata (2021)
- Art Incept Grant Show, Stir Gallery, Delhi (2021)
- Abhudaya, Tansen Kala Vithika, Gwailor (2014)
- In Between, Tansen Kala Vithika, Gwailor (2013)
Further Reading
Ravi Morya’s Instagram Accompanying text from the exhibition What Surface Remembers (2026)
Ravi Morya FAQs
Where is Ravi Morya based?
Ravi Morya is based in Delhi, although he was born in Gwailor. He has spoken about his experience of both places, explaining that he sees cities as “palimpsests... marked by accumulation, erosion and repair”.
What materials and techniques does Ravi Morya use?
Ravi Morya builds layers of acrylic and collage, but also employs drawing and erasing to create work that initiates a dialogue between the finished piece and the viewers. He does not directly depict forms in his art, instead allowing them to dissolve and fragment within the layers of his pictures.
What are Ravi Morya’s influences?
Ravi Morya is inspired by the environment around him—encompassing everything from architecture to woven fabric. Lived experience is also crucial to his practice: from his everyday interactions in Delhi to childhood and more recent memory.
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