Siji Krishnan, “A Blast,” watercolor on rice paper, 2024 (photo courtesy Michael Kohn Gallery)
The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art presents a solo exhibition by Siji Krishnan, the artist’s museum debut in the United States.
“The Secret Place” is now on view in the museum’s Gray Wing through February 22, 2026.
Krishnan’s paintings invite viewers into a world where memory, myth, and daily life intertwine. Working primarily on delicate rice paper, she builds up translucent layers of watercolor and oil to reveal figures, landscapes, and hidden details.
The exhibition brings together recent works from Krishnan’s Los Angeles debut at Michael Kohn Gallery, alongside five new large paintings created in her studio in Kerala, India.
The newer works replace her more figurative elements with water, plants, and sky. The natural world of her home—backwaters, monsoon rains, and village ponds—becomes a central motif.
Both intimate and expansive, her paintings transcend cultural and geographic boundaries, embodying the Upanishadic (ancient Indian sacred philosophical texts) philosophy vasudhaiva kutumbakam: “the world is one family.”
“Siji Krishnan’s paintings invite us into an intimate world where memory, myth, and daily life overlap,” according to SLOMA chief curator Emma Saperstein. “We are honored to share her work with our community, and to create space for audiences to reflect on belonging, resilience, and the stories that shape us.”