Posted on 18 October 2026:
🎨 #YathraCanvas: Art in a Frame
Krati Yadav Receives Academic Excellence Award from BHU: The Young Painter Who Found Her Own Visual Language
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) honors young artist Krati Yadav with the Academic Excellence Award.
Some artists discover their voice early, and then spend a lifetime learning how to trust it. For Ms. Krati Yadav, the journey began at the age of five, and it has now been recognised with the Academic Excellence Award from Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
A Mentor’s Pride
The news came as a happy surprise to her teacher, the renowned Prof. Suresh K. Nair of the Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual Arts (FOVA), BHU.
“Congratulations to Ms. Krati Yadav on receiving the Academic Excellence Award from Banaras Hindu University. It was a pleasant surprise to hear this wonderful news. Ms. Krati is a sincere, hardworking young artist who completed her BFA from the Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual Arts, BHU,” he says.
THE STUDENT WHO WOULD NOT GIVE UP
Behind the award is a story of quiet determination. When Krati approached Prof. Suresh K. Nair to supervise her MFA, his first answer was a gentle no.
“As a practice, I usually do not take students who have done BFA here in BHU for MFA under my supervision, for many reasons,” he explains. “Firstly, they have already spent four years here. Secondly, I believe students should gain exposure from other universities. And thirdly, due to my own limitations in communicating in Hindi.”
But Krati’s seriousness, and her persistence, won him over. “Like Krati, some truly serious students come to me persistently and request my guidance. In the beginning, I gently declined Krati as well, but her genuine interest in developing a new visual language and her desire to explore with freedom was evident. She began creating her own vocabulary, which was impressive,” he recalls. “What I find most interesting about her is her keen interest in visual culture, art history and theory.”
FROM COLOURING CLASSES TO CANVAS
Krati’s love of art showed itself early, whether in dance, music, drawing, painting or playing an instrument. Her mother noticed and enrolled her in colouring and drawing classes at five. By Class 11, her fine art teacher had helped her see art as a possible career. She trained for the BFA entrance exam and was admitted to the Faculty of Visual Arts, BHU. She is now in the final year of her MFA in Creative Painting, where she explores collage, building new compositions from fragments of her own earlier works.
WATER, SPIRALS AND PASTEL DREAMS
Krati Yadav works mainly in acrylic on canvas. She is also exploring alcohol inks and works in soft pastels and chalk on grey and brown toned paper. Her paintings are a blend of abstract and figurative forms, shaped by her own idea of realism: “the ability to express the real life emotions and expressions of my own.”
Her greatest inspiration is nature, especially water. The spirals in her series echo its flow, suggesting “a thought unfolding or life moving in cycles.” Her gender-neutral figures capture the moment when a person stops feeling like just an individual and begins to feel part of everything else. Her palette of bright pastel shades expresses what she calls her “urge to live as a child” and to express herself with freedom. For Krati, art is “a visual meditation,” a way “to be here and evolve through life.”
A GROWING LIST OF HONOURS
Krati’s work has been recognised widely, including:
- Ayodhya Kala Ratna Award (2023) and Ayodhya Kala Bhushan Samman (2025)
- Gold Medal and Golden Award Certificate, Flamboyant-2 Global Visual Art Exhibition, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy, Jaipur (2025)
- Tilak Gitai Samman Padak, Rangotsav International Art Exhibition, Jaipur (2024)
- Bronze Medal in Painting and Silver Medal in Photography, Kala Sutram international exhibitions (2023)
- First position, National Level Online Painting Competition by Creative Bharat, and the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award in painting
- Her painting displayed at the Ayodhya Shaili Chitrakala Pradarshani (2023)
WORDS OF BLESSING
Prof. Suresh K. Nair closed with warm wishes: “My best wishes to her for all her future endeavours.” He also offered “special thanks to Prof. Jasminder Kaur, Dean, Faculty of Visual Arts, and Head, Department of Painting, FOVA, BHU, for the support” and thanked all the other faculty members.
Congratulations, Krati! May your canvas keep flowing like the water you paint.
🎨 #YathraCanvas
