Five indian living artists : Sruthy P [b090085 ar]

1. T V SANTHOSH

Born in Kerala, T.V. Santhosh obtained his B.F.A in painting from Santiniketan and Masters in Sculpture from MS University, Vadodara. T V. Santhosh has acquired a major presence in the Indian and International art scene over the last decade with several successful shows with many international art galleries and museums. Santhoshs recent sculptural installation from Passage to India is in the Frank Cohen collection at Initial Access.

Hispaintingsare based on images taken from the news media which Santhosh renders insolarisedcolour schemes, in reference tophotographic negatives. His images of choice documentwar,terrorismand violence.What strikes us immediately about Santhosh is his grasp of the crises of our globalised present, his taste for translating current events, even as they unfold, into narratives that are too allegorical to be history, yet too mutable to be myth. His pattern of selection is determined, however, by the key themes of war and catastrophe: his is an art attentive to the specific idioms of contemporary global conflict, to the diabolical pact between knowledge and terror, the skewed antagonism between puissant globality and weakened locality. Significantly, the artist is preoccupied with the distortion of science and technology into vehicles of terror: the laboratory, as much as the battlefield, is where the action of his paintings is set; the two venues are often conflated

2 ANURADHA NALAPAT

born in 1968. anuradha obtained her b.f.a. fromtrivandrum, kerala.she lives and works inbangaloreand participated solo shows inmadras,calcutta,bangalore,new delhi,cochinandusa.anuradha nalpats works are a metamorphosed junction where form and content are juxtaposed into a harmonized entity.her paintings are a synthesis of the crystallization of empirical ideas that are both intrinsic and introspective. they are detached observations, yet they speak volumes in many mystical ways.

Contemporary means current. Life is always current-within and without. Death is the past. If so contemporariness should be as diverse as its participants. Just like India that houses varied customs, culture and religion; her art too must reflect her people's joyous moments towards the self, respecting individual journeys and shying away from trends. What is heartening is that Contemporary Indian Art is inclusive; she encompasses the dizzying leaps of her artists. My journey as an artist, as a human through the medium of paintings will reflect the intoxicating spaces I discover in my attempt to sit with the gods- to claim my rightful place. Anuradhas views on what she does through art.

3. SAJAL ROY

Sajal Roy's paintings, graphics and drawings evoke the oppressive resonances of the seemingly insignificant details of day-to-day life in an Indian metropolis, as they filter through the prism of his emotionally charged imagination. His works are essentially statements against the dehumanization of the vulnerable and weak by a demonic, increasingly materialistic civilization, which engenders compulsions that violate basic human dignity. Material progress, he seems to say, is reactionary if it devalues the individual.

The dilemmas of ordinary people of men on the street as they tackle their day to day life-situations in an increasingly complex social milieu, assumes extraordinary emotional relevance in Roys art. And the power of the artists visual language is an extension of this social commitment. The human drama infused into every composition is rhythmically enforced through use of strong vibrant lines, sometimes rough, sometimes fluid, but always intense; and in the powerful distortions, disproportions and stylization of his chunky human and animal forms. His use of color too stark, muted, somber or vivid eloquently evokes the mood of the composition

4. MURALI NAGAPUZHA

Self thought artist, Son of a traditional bell metal workerNative of Muvattupuzha, Kerala

Murali Nagapuzhas art works with sentiment but at no time are we to dismiss it as sentimental. It is vulnerable in that it allows itself to be perceived as childlike but that is its strength. A childs innocence, a childs lack of duplicity, a child like playfulness and a childs wonder the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind-. In a world, where being accessible is considered being popular and hence less worthy, Murali Nagapuzha takes a risk. Not just is his realm figurative but his artistic motifs are drawn from a landscape that is now part of every tourist brochure that celebrates Gods Own country. And yet, without being banal or kitschy, Murali Nagapuzhas artistic terrain marvels at the Kerala contours and colours and makes it his own.

5. ACHUTHAN KUDALLUR

Achuthan Kudallur, Born in February 1945 Palghat district, Kerala, is one of Indias foremost abstract painters. He lives and works in Chennai. Achuthans works are known for their mature abstract compositions, the schematic presentation of an idea, without representing any recognizable animate object,but imbued with unbounded energy in free flowing forms and colours.

Inspired by nature and landscapes, his paintings, of Kerala villages, beaches and evenings at the temple, reinforce his belief that remembering implies reinventing. Achuthan says "With a certain nostalgia, I remember the smell of the expressionist paint spread over my canvas in the seventies. I painted in that style because, with my way of looking at the world at that time, there was no other way out. What I do now with the colour is not a logical extension of those pictures, but a confession that such story telling does not necessarily make a picture".

For Achuthan, painting is not a dialogue or a conversation, but a communion with colour. His works display a remarkable economy of style and grace. His paintings are of a non-figurative style and the medium he uses is oil. Achutan's art is at once exciting, energetic, yet strangely tranquil. For the viewer, to view, is to invite a kind of haunting