Suneeva Saldanha: KANIYO. Tales

November 6-29, 2025

Suneeva Saldanha, a visual artist based in Seattle, was born in Virajpet, Kodagu, India and raised in Bengaluru. For Saldanha, visual art has long been a primary language of communication and an essential form of self-expression. After completing studies in Animation, they worked as an art facilitator, a role that deepened their teaching practice while also broadening their understanding of how art resonates across different audiences.

With the exhibition KANIYO. Tales, Saldanha reflects on nostalgia and the emotional distance from their cultural roots. They turn to folklore—its characters, motifs, and shared narratives—as a way of reconnecting with collective memory. For Saldanha, folklore belongs to everyone: it is born of multicultural exchanges and passed through generations as a means of sharing traditions, fears, joys, and hopes. At its best, folklore is inclusive, a living archive of collective experience. Yet, Saldanha also acknowledges how these same stories can be co-opted by nationalistic or religious movements, reshaped into tools of exclusion or propaganda. Their work resists this narrowing, emphasizing folklore’s rightful place as a communal inheritance rather than a political weapon.

The visual language of KANIYO. Tales draws on diverse influences: traditional tattoo forms (Japanese and American), textile patterns, miniature painting, and geometric design, layered with the vivid color palettes of South India. Materials are deliberately accessible—commercial household latex paints, wood, and primer—chosen to reinforce the idea that folk art belongs to the people. By working with these everyday materials, Saldanha asserts that storytelling through art will always adapt to what is readily available in one’s surroundings.