N.N. Rimzon

Promised Land

December 6, 2025 - March 7, 2026

Talwar Gallery, New York

N.N. Rimzon

Promised Land

Talwar Gallery, New York
December 6, 2025 - March 7, 2026

Talwar, New York is delighted to present, Promised Land, an exhibition of Kerala based N.N. Rimzon. On view are new sculptures, a seminal work from 1987 alongside his paintings. For more than four decades, Rimzon has continued to create quietly evocative sculptures and modest markings on paper and canvas, embedded in humanism they tender a sense of reflection and introspection.

N.N. Rimzon - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery

Central to Rimzon’s practice is exploring the malleability of the archetypal images, a house can be a body or a temple and a pot can be a womb, earth or the cosmos. Untethering the image from its past constructs and widely accepted indications, and by positioning disparate forms together, Rimzon creates a poetic and aesthetic experience that reveals as much about the work as our selves.

There is a tactile sensuality to Rimzon’s works, their surfaces are like skin and with their materials bared, they easily claim their identity. In two new works he employs very distinct approaches – Trap (2025) is a foreboding brushed aluminum sculpture, in three parts - small steps, a house and a sphere. The forms are geometric with several hard edges and closed except for a small opening on the outside that proposes there is an inner space, a path towards reflection, the inner self. On the other end it is connected to a spherical pot, a heaven perhaps, as a destination after completing the unfinished journey, goal or a trap?

The meaning is not truth - it’s an imagined meaning and finds its origin/connotations in history. It’s an engineered product. I want to go beyond that.

N.N. Rimzon

Port from Malabar | 1987 (Detail)

In contrast a more modestly sized sculpture where an elongated bronze structure sits atop a plinth of wax, almost like a temple or a monastery perched on a steep hill – remote, hard to access and upward bound. Here as well, there is a single opening, that seems welcoming in its rounded structure and aging patinated bronze with a long corridor leading to an bulbous inner sanctum - a portal to the beyond. The organic form, almost body like, sensual and perched on a soft skin like base is inviting as its namesake, Promised Land (2025).

In a seminal work Port from Malabar (1987), created while at The Royal College of
Art in London, Rimzon imbues a tension within seemingly contrasting parts, eliciting precariousness and balance, violence and stillness. During this period, he was also introduced to the transformative power of the medium through work of Beuys and
Arte Povera.

Rimzon’s installations further capture the tenuous line separating an ever-shifting landscape and the sanctum of home. They consider whether the home can remain a refuge, immune from the surrounding disturbances, the landscapes in motion. Collectively, however, these works demonstrate that life must continue despite and within these contested terrains.

Shanay Jhaveri

In contrast a more modestly sized sculpture where an elongated bronze structure sits atop a plinth of wax, almost like a temple or a monastery perched on a steep hill. Here as well, there is a single opening, that seems welcoming in its rounded structure and aging patinated bronze with a long corridor leading to an inner sanctum - a portal to the beyond. The organic form, almost body like, sensual and perched on a soft skin like base is inviting as its namesake, Promised Land (2025).

Red Sky with Stars | 2021 (Detail)

In Rimzon’s paintings and drawings, keen attention to structure and color is paired with simple, recognizable forms that, as in his sculptural works, deftly steer away from any specific narratives. Instead, shrouded in mystery, they provoke a deep emotional and intellectual response.

Rimzon’s works are not just visually compelling but also thought-provoking with often emphasizing the idea of the exposed and hidden, they create environments that challenge the viewer’s understanding of space and the physical world. Open ended and charged they invite reflection and encourage deeper consideration of how art can engage across boundaries of society, culture, religion, geography and time.

There is a spiritual protocol in the work of Rimzon.

Geeta Kapur

Rimzon’s works have been exhibited at museums across the globe including recently at The Barbican Centre, London, UK; The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, Australia; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Delhi, India; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Asia Society, New York; Museum of Modern Art, (MuHKA), Antwerp, Belgium; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Singapore Art Museum; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan and The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Nedumgottil Narayanan Rimzon (N.N. Rimzon) was born in 1957 in Kakkoor, Kerala, India. Rimzon earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in sculpture from the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum (1982), a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at MS University, Baroda (1984) and a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art, London (1989). Rimzon taught Sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum, India and was the Director of the Art School from 2011-2014.

Rimzon lives and works in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.