Boy on Electric Scooter in
Collapsing Universe
2024

An Exhibition in Progess

Studio Notes 2019-24

This gallery shows only a selective body of work and work in progress. Below are paintings and prints from between 2019-24; and 2015-19. It’s a personal, autobiographical explorations of a world undergoing disruptive change. I lost my father in 2018, then Covid hit us for 3 years, and it’s been very challenging for all of us. I’ve been inspired by Odysseus’ travels through the Underworld, Orc from William Blake’s America A Prophecy. Lately I have begun to question my ideas of “Englishness” - a lifelong question for me. We have entered an era of climate disasters and now war in Europe, Gaza (again) while the Indo-Pacific where I live faces growing geopolitical tensions inspiring a sub-narrative arc titled The AUKUS Chronicles. Amongst all this, it is a time to return to the spirit which dwells within, and to take love seriously as a guiding principle, even as we look into our souls and face our personal demons. >>next gallery

Paintings 2019-24

Gaza, Monsters of the Id. A painting in red, white and blue, 76x52cm, January 2024 Carl Gopalkrishnan

‘Spiders From Mars’ from my series ‘ 2023 from “A Field Manual for a Lost Soldier” by Carl Gopalkrishnan. First published in VALA journal, Issue 5, November 28th 2023 by The Blake Society, London, UK
**To scale giclée prints available in Carl’s** **‘little print shop’**

Wrong Way, Go Back from my series ‘ 2023 from “A Field Manual for a Lost Soldier” by Carl Gopalkrishnan.. First published in VALA journal, Issue 5, November 28th 2023 by The Blake Society, London, UK
**To scalegiclée prints available in Carl’s** **‘little print shop’**

‘Red Pill. Blue Pill’ from my series ‘ 2023 from “A Field Manual for a Lost Soldier” by Carl Gopalkrishnan. First published in VALA journal, Issue 5, November 28th 2023 by The Blake Society, London, UK
**To scale giclée prints available in Carl’s** **‘little print shop’**

‘Angel. Devil. Bat Girl’ from my series ‘ 2023 from “A Field Manual for a Lost Soldier” by Carl Gopalkrishnan.. First published in VALA journal, Issue 5, November 28th 2023 by The Blake Society, London, UK
**To scale giclée prints available in Carl’s** **‘little print shop’**

*Australia A Prophecy*, acrylic paint, screen print, aerosol, 22K gold leaf on canvas, 95x71cm, 2021 Carl Gopalkrishnan. First published in Critical Military Studies Journal, Rutledge UK, June 2022. **(POA)**
**A3 size giclée prints available in Carl’s** **‘little print shop’**

Ω. *Bildungsroman - a self portrait*, acrylic paint on canvas, 41x50cm, 2021 Carl Gopalkrishnan **(POA)** .

Ω. Radio Killed The Video Star, Acrylic on wooden board, 2022 Carl Gopalkrishnan **(POA)**

Ω. A Many Splendored Thing Acrylic on Canvas, 2020 Carl Gopalkrishnan. This painting was a finalist in the 2020 Collie Art Prize in Western Australia. **(POA)**

Supernature (Pestilence), Acrylic on Canvas, 2021 Carl Gopalkrishnan — Ω. The Last Days of Disco, Acrylic on Canvas, 2021 Carl Gopalkrishnan **(POA)**

Ω. *Hello Pretty Pretty, 25th February 2022.* acrylic paint on canvas, 2022 Carl Gopalkrishnan. **(POA)**

*A Portrait of Nail Aykan, An Australian Muslim community leader* of Conscience © Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2022 **(Private Collection)**

*Does this tie make me look fat? A Covid diary* © Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021

I Can’t Breathe, pencil, charcoal on acrylic on paper, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2020* *(Giclee prints* (POA)

Printmaking 2023

Conversations with Orc II, Drypoint, Unique State U/S, by Carl Gopalkrishnan. 2023.
*© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2023* **(POA)**

AUKUS Chronicles 2023 (Giclee Print of a Unique State print). The original is hand coloured in watercolour directly onto the drypoint print) by Carl Gopalkrishnan. See ‘a little print shop’ in November to order from an edition of 50 scaled to A4 cotton rag.
*© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2023* **(POA)**

Conversations with Orc I (A Bar on Smith Street), Drypoint, Unique State U/S, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021* 2023. **(POA)**

Conversations with Orc II (A bar in Richmond, Melbourne), Drypoint, Unique State U/S, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021* 2023. **(POA)**

The Mental Fight (Lamb of God), Drypoint, Unique State U/S on cotton, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021* 2021 **(POA)**

The Mental Fight (Lamb of God), Drypoint, Unique State U/S Watercolour on cotton, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021* 2021 **(POA)**

Goddess, Drypoint, Unique State U/S, *© Copyright Carl Gopalkrishnan 2021* **(Giclee Print POA)**

Work In Progress: Vala 5

A collaborative performance art photo-essay. Concept & Text By Carl Gopalkrishnan. Photography by Juliette Scott. Stylists: Marica Furlan & Carl Gopalkrishnan.
The Blake Society’s Vala #5 themed “GOD”. Publishing in November 2024.

Recent community portraits,
art prize entries & commissions

Studio Notes for
Paintings 2015-19

These paintings were completed in Melbourne, Australia between 2015 and 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. They explore communities and stories impacted by social cohesion disruptions that arose from counter-terrorism incidents and my work in community policy and advocacy. The images evoke the rise of far-right radicalization on social media, exposure to Islamophobia, and the power of myth-making by researchers, government, and the media. During this time, my father's declining health & death added poignancy to those pressures. I'm reminded of the words of the late US academic S. Paige Baty, who wrote in 1995 that "the dead are some of the most powerful figures in the virtual realm,".