Blog Archives
Blog Archives
Blog Archives
Blog Archives
Over the past two decades, Carl Gopalkrishnan's artwork has garnered international recognition for his ability to forge meaningful connections between art & literature and the complex dynamics driving international law, intervention and global conflict. Carl transforms familiar cultural artefacts into new myths so legal and military minds can explore the creative, subconscious and emotional stories that shape their doctrines of war & peace. (Photograph copyright © Amanda Brown 1992)
Open Letter: Red, White & Blue = Lavender. In 2024 we turn desperately to our young people to paint a better future.
Creation is not only for artists. Students who are discovering their voices to call for a ceasefire in Gaza are, collectively, creating a moment in history. Those opposing it will apply the same silencing, disparaging comments, and threats, as they have to artists who have challenged doctrine for millennia.
New Publishing: My art feature for The University of Michigan Law School’s left student zine Radical Commons! March 2024, USA
I have two articles in Radical Commons! (or Radco! as it is known by the student body) this month. Radco! is a new left student zine started by students at the University of Michigan Law School which was formed to create a safe space for left students in what is recognised as a fairly conservative profession…They also published my 27th February blog post on the death of Aaron Bushnell, may he rest in peace.
New Painting: ‘Gaza, Monsters of the Id. A painting in red, white and blue’ I turn this painting against the wall before I sleep, Jan 2024
Artists paint especially when there are no words left…
New Publishing: The Australian Fabians Review #6 re-publishes my 2010 Gaza paintings, January 2024 AU
Deeply grateful to editors of The Australian Fabian Review # 6, 2024 for featuring my four 2010 paintings & extract from my blog post last year about the provenance of wars in Gaza. Their cover art is very clear: “Stop Killing Children”.
Rearview Mirror: As US nuclear submarines move into my hometown, I revisit my dry pastel "Ship of Fools" from 1992
I was reminded with all the stories around the Indo-Pacific and naval activities of some artworks from my 1992 solo exhibition Dualities. I was 24 and they have that graphic style from the era as I was doing graphic design back then before I discovered paint and canvas. It is the same theme, starting with dry pastel on paper in very vivid colours (1). All titled the same, Ship of Fools. This first image was actually the last incarnation. I started off with some pen and ink cross hatch drawings (3), the theme then evolved into an etching/aquatint on cotton rag (2).
Studio Diaries: My past visual diaries speak to the present disintegrations of the American dream
This is a digitised visual diary entry I made in 2005 and later used in my paintings for a solo exhibition called The Assassination of Judy Garland back in 2013. I have a lot of sketches and studies which never seen to see the light of day, and I’m turning them into prints in some cases, or adding them into my studies of the present. This one was scribbled Energize Mr Ellis on a print I found in one of my files. It was about fragmenting materiality, or disintegration such as dropping something in an acid bath, in this case, myths of American exceptionalism…