Kanayi Kunhiraman is a sculptor from Kuttamath in Hosdurg Taluk in Kasaragod district of Kerala state, India. He is the Former Chairman of the Lalit Kala Academy.
Kanayi was born onJuly 1937 at Kuttamath in Kasaragod District of Kerala. After completing his schooling, he passed the SSLC examination in 1957. By then he had already found his vocation. He ran away from home when he was barely seventeen because the elders strongly disapproved of his creative pursuits. He felt stifled in the conservative atmosphere of the traditional joint family, where the primary role of the youth was to obey unquestioningly the instructions of the elders, predominantly the patriarch.
Source: Wikipedia