Visual artist Anya Kalsi Follow.Art Card

About me

My practice is rooted in abstraction and repetitive mark-making, beginning with close observation of the natural world. I start by taking macro photographs of nature, focusing on intricate patterns and textures that might otherwise go unnoticed. These images act as a starting point, which I then abstract and reinterpret through drawing, painting, and installation.

While my work often begins with a level of planning, the process itself embraces spontaneity and intuition. Repetition becomes both a visual language and a method of thinking, allowing forms to evolve organically over time. Through this, I explore the tension between control and unpredictability, where marks accumulate, shift, and respond to one another.

Throughout my degree, my practice has expanded into installation, with a growing awareness of how work is experienced in space and how the viewer engages with it. I am interested in how repetition can influence perception, drawing attention to rhythm, scale, and the physical act of looking.

An important aspect of sustaining my practice is the movement between mediums. I find that shifting between drawing, oil painting, and installation allows ideas to develop more freely, preventing stagnation and opening new ways of thinking. This fluid approach enables repetition to remain dynamic, continually reshaped through material and process.

I do not aim to direct the viewer toward a single, fixed interpretation. Instead, I want to create space for individual responses, where meaning is shaped through the viewer’s own imagination and perception. My work invites open-ended engagement, allowing each person to encounter and interpret it in their own way.