Winner of Soviet Land Nehru Award for painting in 1989 at the age of thirteen, Kavitha Balakrishnan was a well known child-prodigy in Kerala. Over the years, she actively engages with the changing scenario of practicing, writing and educating art and art-history in Kerala. Her articles are widely published in journals like Marg, Art & Deal, TAKE on art, peer reviewed Journal of Illustration Research Intellect, London etc. She has written noted books in Malayalam on art, articulating Kerala in the context of Modern and contemporary practices. Her forthcoming title is ‘Vayanamanushyante Kalacharithram’ (The Art History of the Reader-Viewer in 20th century Kerala) from Kerala Sahitya Academy.
Kavitha has also carved a niche for herself by an artistic language that cuts across the disciplines of Art, Art History and Poetry. Her‘Matchbox Poems’ in 2015 was landmark experimental display of ‘poetry as artwork’. These were exhibited at the Merzbarn Cumbria UK, Manchester Metropolitan University, Loafers art Café, Fort Kochi and a few important poetry festivals in Kerala. A political take on woman's spirituality in patriarchy, her graphic picture book called ‘Poo enna Penkutty’ (Story of the flower-girl -2018) also radicalized the way a book could be read visually in Malayalam. She has published three collections of Malayalam Poetry. Her poems have been translated into Tamil, Hindi and English.
She is currently teaching Art History & Visual Studies at Govt. College of Fine Arts, Thrissur. Kerala.