G R Iranna is an artist whose work transcends the boundaries of time and space. Born in 1970, it has been barely 15 years since he started painting professionally, and his work is already mature and profound. Many of Iranna`s paintings depict pain as an abstract force that is translated visually in bruised text and razor sharp cutting edges. His painting has always been far removed from an overriding, postmodern logic. Instead, Iranna uses the idealistic, representative and modernist language of Indian contemporary art. His most recent works are all visions of resistance. In just a glance, one can tell a sense of massive dynamic energy that pervades the surfaces. An energy that is fuelled by torment and the struggle against it. Upon further inspection, one sees that these conflicts being played out on the surface are present also in those between one colour and another, between figure and hue, and between the crudeness and the expertise employed. His works on canvas and tarpaulin seem to have an almost romantic undertone: the result of Iranna attempting to break away from his own mould and reform his work. They cater to contemporary expectations, and reflect his need to pander to many contradictory demands. Those of society as well of the artist himself. He lives and works in Delhi.

In 'Meditating Monk', Iranna uses a monk as an innocent element to depict spirituality. Society, he feels, has misused spirituality and he uses the monk element to revive this finer sensibility. The monk is not meant to point towards any Buddhist leanings.