Kalyani Pramod is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and creative director of Common Threads, a fiber-arts studio in Chennai, India. She graduated in textile design from the National Institute of Design, India in 1983. Her work incorporates sculpture, mixed media painting, pottery, and two- and three-dimensional textile art. Apart from running Common Threads Studio, she is a guest faculty member at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, and co-founder of Shuttles and Needles, a weaving, spinning and felting studio.   

 

The diversity of Kalyani’s artistic disciplines is mirrored by the broad range of subject matter incorporated into her works. Central themes of her career include working with and documenting the lifestyles and craft practices of artisan communities; empowering people with limited vocational experience through creative training, expression while encouraging self-reliance; and working with discarded “waste” materials. 

 

Kalyani has been recognized nationally, and internationally for her accomplishments, including the Nari Shakti Award from the Ministry of Women and Child Development of India, for her work towards the empowerment of women. Her works have been exhibited in Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Al-Sadu House, Kuwait and Poompuhar, Chennai. 

 

More recently, the focus of Kalyani’s work has evolved to encompass more global themes, building on the naturalist and anthropological subjects of her earlier works.