Thilak Reddy is a talented young artist originally from Kalamkari, Andhra Pradesh, a town along the Coromandel Coast of India that has long been famous for the production of mordant-painted and -dyed textiles, popularly known today as kalamkari (literally “pen work”). The art of kalamkari is a multi-step process of hand-painting natural dyes and mordants onto silk and cotton cloth to create beautiful figurative and vegetal motifs. Thilak learned the art of kalamkari from his father and now runs a small workshop in the city Tirupathi, not far from Kalamkari.

In his work, Thilak expands upon traditional kalamkari motifs like the tree-of-life, meandering floral forms, and geometric patterns: Thilak expands the scale and proportions of traditional kalamkari motifs and incorporates bold color combinations. The results are one-of-a-kind textiles and garments that push the art of kalamkari in new and innovative ways