When Nitheen Ramalingam first stepped foot in Davis in 2022, it was his first time not just in the U.S. but in any country outside of India. He was a visual artist ready to expand his knowledge and skills as a graduate student in UC Davis’ Art Studio program.

Ramalingam expected to be challenged as an artist while at UC Davis, but he faced other challenges too. Everything from heatwaves and endless paperwork to figuring out how to get to the Bay Area from Davis using only public transportation — and the affiliated costs — and getting used to different social and cultural norms. It was all a part of a learning curve that loomed large for Ramalingam.

And, when it came to his art, he struggled for a while there too.

Though he had some experience painting with acrylics and dyes, Ramalingam had mostly been making large-scale drawings when he entered the M.F.A. program. As he explored different mediums, he often received challenging feedback from faculty.

“There’s been a lot of personal growth,” Ramalingam said. “Eventually,” he said, “I found my place here.” 

Despite his struggles early on, Ramalingam ended up earning the Keister & Allen Art Purchase Prize at the Arts & Humanities 2024 Graduate Exhibition. As part of the prize, one of Ramalingam’s oil paintings, “Venmani Martyr’s day, 2021, (The Performance)” is now part of the university’s fine art collection.

“The award is really important because I was struggling for all the two years in my work — I was trying so many different things and nothing was working,” Ramalingam said. “Even having the thesis show at a museum was a big thing," he added. He never imagined he'd take home one of the exhibition's top honors.

"It’s very overwhelming in a nice way," he said. "After the experience here, I'm confident I can go anywhere and still do well."

Looking back toward home and history

The context of Ramalingam’s work is very much planted in the histories of oppression and resistance in India. He is often thinking about the caste system and its legacy.

For two generations, his family has opted out of religious rituals in marriages that upheld the caste system. But, even though his family generally has progressive views, there were big moments in the resistance’s history that Ramalingam wasn’t aware of until he was older.

One of these moments in time was the Kilvenmani massacre of 1968.

As Ramalingam tells it, at the time, there were a few rich landowners who were at odds with agricultural laborers and tenant farmers who were having some success organizing against the landowners.

“The landlords felt they were on the losing side,” Ramalingam said. “They were very angry — they didn’t want things to change.”

One night, one landlord and his posse went to the village to find all the men had already fled. Instead, these “henchmen,” as Ramalingam called them, chased the women, children and elderly, who then took shelter in a single hut. The landlord and men burned the hut, killing 44 people.

“That shook the conscious of the nation, and that was the first massacre against Dalit people, who are from ex-untouchable castes,” Ramalingam said.

Outrage over the massacre eventually resulted in new freedom and power to the lower economic class of agricultural laborers and tenant farmers. Land was redistributed and, in that region, the material basis for the caste system was weakened.

In 2021, Ramalingam visited Kilvenmani to learn more about an annual celebration that commemorates the day as a turning point in the region. He’s been thinking about and meditating on it ever since.

Though there was great sacrifice and struggle, Ramalingam said it is a positive story.

“It’s a story that shows these kinds of oppressive things can be won over,” he said.

The Kilvenmani massacre and its echoes in history are the topic of Ramalingam’s award-winning series, “Venmani martyr’s day, 2021.”

The figurative paintings meditate on the commemoration of the Kilvenmani martyrs. While the colors are vibrant and celebratory, Ramalingam also deftly captures the sense of grief and longing that are bound up in the events.

Looking into the future

Leaving India has changed Ramalingam’s work in many ways. He credits UC Davis for exposing him to new mediums and strategies, and giving him clarity on how to go from a concept to a finished piece of work.

But India hasn’t left Ramalingam or his artwork.

“I am painting something from India, but I am painting it from a distance,” Ramalingam said. “There is a sense of longing in those paintings but there’s also a sense of looking at the context in India from outside, from the perspective of being exposed to the culture here in Davis or in the United States and then looking back through that kind of lens.”

For now, Ramalingam has chosen to stay in Davis, working as an adjunct professor in the Los Rios Community College District and finding an artist community in Sacramento while maintaining his roots back in India.

Ramalingam's solo show, Alone, Coming Together: New Paintings by Nitheen Ramalingam, is currently on view at Sacramento City Hall through May 27. It was curated by Susie Kantor, associate curator and exhibition department head at the Manetti Shrem Museum. His work is also currently on exhibition in a group show at Verge Center for the Arts in Sacramento, where he has been a resident artist. 

This summer, Ramalingam will be an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center. He is also preparing for a group show at Method Gallery in Delhi and Mumbai, India. 

See more of Ramalingam's work in his online portfolio or follow him on Instagram @nitheenstudio.

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