Although he began painting oil on canvases at the start of his career, Iranna later developed his range of mediums: including gouache and ceramic, before embarking on his now primary use of tarpaulin.
He did his first show in 1992 at the College of Visual Art, Gulbarga and was later the artist-inresidence at Wimbledon School of Art, London between 1999 and 2000. Since then, he was featured in numerous shows extensively, both locally and internationally. He also participated in a myriad of group shows and curated exhibitions through the years, most recently, Indian Blue: Fro Realism to Abstraction at DAG in New Delhi in 2021.
Keen on reinvention, his shift in style and medium observed in his current works are symbolic and
characteristic of an artist constantly evolving with the time, breaking away from his own mould and
reforming his works to capture the zeitgeist of the times. While there's still a repetition of motifs
that can be perceived in his canvases, especially the figures which appeared in his earlier works, it is
now less figurative and leaning more towards the form.
The artist has had at least 16 solo shows and over 50 group shows through the years, including the
58th Venice Biennale - May You Live In Interesting Times in 2019. Notable shows from recent
years include The Primordial Ash, Aicon Gallery, New York (2017); Ether is all that is, Gallery
Espace New Delhi (2017); And the last shall be the first: GR Iranna, Works 1995-2015 in
the National Gallery of Modern Art Bengaluru (2016); Tempered Branches, AICON Gallery, New
York (2014); Limning Heterotopias: A Journey into G.R. Iranna's Shadows of the InBetween, Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2012); Thought of the day, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi
(2012); Scaffolding the Absent, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2011); and the Ribbed Routes, The
Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2010).
His work is part of the collections at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Bharat
Bhawan, Bhopal, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; and the Singapore Art Museum among others.