Thiruvananthapuram/ June 6 (BPNS)
Artist Francis Antony Kodankandath is a self-taught artist from Thrissur, Kerala, India. Artist is inspired by his father Prof. KP Antony (late). Francis other than being a honest and upright IRS officer with the Customs and Central excise has been an artist all along his life. He has balanced a chequered professional carrier as a Customs officer who was feared by the nefarious elements who used various airports for their illegal deals and had spent several of his years in pursuit of criminal gangs.Francis has always been an upright an meritorious officer whose passion for painting led him to contacts with the cultural icons of the country.
Francis Kodankadath easily rolled out into an Artist even as he worked as an IRS officer with no compromise against those who break the law of the land. He proved his excellence in the world of art after his painting series on Mahatma Gandhi (Father of our Nation) consisting of 16 paintings were selected by the UN and exhibited at the UN Head Quarters General Assembly Hall, commemorating the International Day of Non-Violence on October 2nd, 2018 being the 150th birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Recently Artist Kodankandath’s paintings were selected for Austria Biennale 2021, Florence Biennale 2015, and London Biennale 2018 to exhibit the paintings and visit Venice Biennale. In Florence, Kodankandath won Xth Florence Biennale Medal for the painting titled ‘Application for the Patent of a Paper Boat’. Kodankandath was lone Artist selected from India to represent London & Austria Biennale.
Artist Kodankandath won the most prestigious Indian National Akademi award in the year 2004 and Three-State Akademi Awards in 1986, 1989, and 1993. In 2004 Kodankandath was selected for the Triennial and National Awardees Exhibition.
Another prominent achievement of using Khadi was when he had created a series of 21 paintings based on 7 plays written by world-renowned dramatist, Padmabhushan Kavalam Narayana Panicker, which were later exhibited at Shakespeare Theater, London.
Kodankandath was awarded certificates of merit from UNFPO, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and National Academy of Customs, Delhi.
Kodankandath has held 55 Solo Exhibitions, in India, Japan, Italy, France, England, America, Argentina, Thailand & UAE, at the Japanese International Cultural Cooperation Agency (Tokyo, Japan); International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Italy); New Heaven City Art Gallery (USA); University de-Joseph Fourier (Paris); River Dale Art Gallery (UK); Newman Centre University of New Orleans (USA); Jahangir Art Gallery (Mumbai); Alliance Francaise (Bangalore) and the Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery (Kerala).
Some of the paintings are in the collection of the Nobel Laureate St. Mother Teresa, Nobel Laureate H H Dalai Lama, St. H H Pope John Paul II, Sri Chandrasekhar former Prime Minister of India, Somnath Chatterjee Parliament Speaker, and several worldwide well-known personalities.
