Nayanaa Kanodia

(b. 1950, Pune) is a contemporary Indian artist and one of the prominent practitioners of L’Art Naïf in India. An economist turned painter, she developed her distinctive visual language largely through self-directed learning, with a year-long apprenticeship under artist Anjolie Ela Menon.

Kanodia’s paintings portray the theatre of everyday Indian life—its people, streets, homes, social rituals, humour, contradictions, and changing aspirations. Bright colours, intricate patterns, flattened perspectives, and expressive characters create worlds that are simultaneously familiar and fantastical. 

She studied Economics at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, Through wit, colour, and observation, Kanodia transforms ordinary life into a vivid exploration of Indian society, human eccentricity, humour, and cultural change.