​​Manoj Kannan is a painter, art historian and educator who have worked in fine arts education in Kerala for more than two decades. He trained in Painting at the College of Fine Arts Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, and at Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, and went on to study the History of Art at Visva-Bharati. Studio practice, art historical research and questions of pedagogy have stayed continuous across his work rather than dividing into separate pursuits.

His writing ranges over painting, visual culture, aesthetics and the history of art education in Kerala. Recent research traces the development of the College of Fine Arts Kerala from its origins as a colonial School of Arts into a modern institution of higher art education.

 

He has also written on Kerala's visual modernity and its regional art histories. He received the State Award for Art Students and a scholarship from the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi while he was an art student. His paintings have been shown widely, including his solo exhibition Injuries Uncured at the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi gallery, Kozhikode, and group shows at the Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre, Chennai, among them Divergent Horizons curated by Suresh Jayaram; Murmuration at Knots, Vadodara; the Durbar Hall Art Centre, Kochi; and the First International Art Fair organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi and the IGNCA, New Delhi. He has taken part in artists' camps across the country, including at Panaji in Goa and at Kavaratti in Lakshadweep.

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Before taking charge as Principal at Thiruvananthapuram, he held academic and administrative positions across Kerala's government institutions. He served as caretaker of the Sri Chitra Art Gallery under the Department of Museums, as Professor and Head of the Department of Painting, and as Principal of the Government College of Fine Arts, Thrissur. He has been a member of the academic council of the University of Calicut.

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As Principal he is concentrated on enhancing the academic ambiance and to hold the College to consistent studio practice, historical inquiry and critical thinking, and to open it to the questions pertinent to design, visual culture, technology, curatorial practice and an art education answerable to its public.