Krishna Reddy, printmaker, sculptor, and teacher, was born on 15 July 1925 in the village of Chitoor, Andhra Pradesh, India. He first studied at the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal, beginning at age fifteen. While there he became involved in Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India movement and designed and printed hundreds of posters for distribution when he wasn't studying, despite risk of arrest. This early experience with socio-political activism woud influence his work long into his career. After graduating in 1947, Reddy headed the art department at the College of Fine Arts, Kalakshetra, Adyar, India for two years. He then studied under the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishamurti who helped Reddy secure travel in Europe. Between the years 1951 and 1952, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts, University of London, where he received his Certificate in Fine Arts in 1952.

Reddy then studied sculpture with Ossip Zadkine at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, receiving a Certificate in Fine Arts in 1955. During this time Zadkine introduced him to Stanley William Hayter’s experimental workshop Atelier 17 because he thought the young artist possessed remarkable graphic talents. While working at Atelier 17, Reddy developed the sculptural aspect of printmaking and he and Kaiko Moti discovered the principles of viscosity etching. Reddy continued his studies in sculpture with Marino Marini at the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan where he received a Certificate in Fine Arts in 1957. He resumed working at Atelier 17 in Paris and served as assistant director of between 1957 and 1964, and then severed as co-director and professor between 1964 and 1976.

He first visited New York in 1964 when he was invited along with the International Symposium of Sculptors to Montreal where they worked on a monumental sculpture of Portuguese marble. From there he was invited to the American University in Washington, D.C. to teach a seminar on color prints. Reddy moved to New York in 1976 and the following year joined the faculty of the New York University where he became a professor and director of the department of graphics and printmaking. He taught at New York University for forty years.

In 1981, the exhibition Krishna Reddy: A Retrospective was mounted by the Bronx Museum of Arts and, in 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of American Graphic Artists.

Reddy’s work was included in countless solo and group exhibitions internationally and is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Bhopal; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Memphis Brooks Museum, Memphis, Tennessee; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; the Albertina Museum, Vienna; the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art Washington D.C.; the Winnipeg Art Museum, Canada; and the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, among others.

Krishna Reddy died in New York on 22 August 2018.