Born in 1993, in Bangalore, Karnataka, Anilakumar Govindappa is a multidisciplinary artist. While trained as a painter and printmaker, he works across mediums combining printmaking, painting, ceramics, and installations. Anilakumar graduated in Painting from KEN School of Art, Hampi University in 2012 and later completed his master’s in Printmaking from S N School of Art and Communication, University of Hyderabad in 2015.

He has participated in several national and international exhibitions and biennales. He has received the Young Artists Award from the Ministry of Art and Culture, Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi Scholarship, South Indian Art Exhibition Jury Award – Chandra Ilango Foundation. His works were exhibited at the Osten Biennale of Drawing Skopje in 2016, LandSpaces a group art show – in Chennai in 2019, Chi Gallery – in Iran in 2020, Vusawthis Art Gallery Canada 2020, and Immerse group exhibition – in Mumbai in 2022.

Anilakumar bagged several artists residency programs and workshops such as Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi Graphic Printmaking Fellowship 2021, Space Studio sculpture residency 2020, Kalakriti residency, Nine Fish Art Gallery residency, National Printmaking Workshop – Visva Bharati University - Santiniketan, Dhi Art Space woodcut workshop and many more.

Anilakumar's work resembles a diary of events that took place in his everyday life. He leaves nothing behind from his observation and the remembrances of such events. The places and people connected with him in a day-to-day environment appear in his images quite often and become a 360-degree view of the life around him. Sometimes, he deliberately implants metaphorical visual elements that resemble his personal interpretation or statements about material existence.

Anilakumar's work is not only about capturing the essence of an event but also conveying its meaning by using metaphors and symbols. He is absorbed in exploring how human beings perceive their world and how they interpret it based on their experiences.

His visual narratives are not just about one thing at a certain time, instead, they are about various things at diverse points and times that turned into a book of short stories eventually. As one walks through the pages, one will come across different moments of life, and it goes on. For him, the process of drawing is an extension of his thought process, where there would be no place for anything else other than a pure expression in its primitive preliminary state. The rawness of the drawings reflects the ambiguity of the thoughts running in his mind, and it is where he would relate his thought process with the genuine and humble images that evolved in his drawings.