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New York gallery showcases the get the job done of Kerala artist Tom Vattakuzhy

New York gallery showcases the get the job done of Kerala artist Tom Vattakuzhy

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Tom Vattakuzhy’s solo display ‘Song of the Dusk’ on at a gallery in New York captures the loneliness and uncertainty of the pandemic times

Tom Vattakuzhy’s solo demonstrate ‘Song of the Dusk’ on at a gallery in New York captures the loneliness and uncertainty of the pandemic occasions

A gradual sense of disquiet starts to construct as you gaze into artist Tom Vattakuzy’s beautiful painting,‘Song of the Dusk’. A burial is underway — a mound of soil occupies the centre of the frame with a wreath laid beneath it. The church looms behind, its imposing white partitions contrasting the tangerine tones of a setting sun. Persons, sporting masks pulled down to their chins, stand all around in sepulchral silence. 

The 2020 oil-on-canvas work pits the staggering natural beauty of daily life against the transience of it. It captures the worry, the uncertainty and the festering unhappiness of pandemic deaths. Although he does not commonly paint a collection on a preset theme, he is moved by conditions and ordeals that he encounters. Tom’s will work frequently have untold psychological resonances of these activities. This certain do the job could have originated from a perception of particular decline, states Tom, who shed his father all over the time, even though not to COVID-19. 

The function is at the moment on show at Aicon Contemporary, a gallery specialising in will work of rising Indian and Pakistani artists, at New York. Six of Tom’s is effective are on show at his initial solo exhibition overseas.

‘Girl with Bubbles’

‘Girl with Bubbles’
| Photograph Credit history: Particular Arrangement

Isolation and loneliness seem to be to be the thread connecting all his is effective at the display. A profound feeling of silence pervades each and every portray. “In a sense, loneliness is our living fact today,” states Tom. “Pestilence or not, we dwell in solitude, distant and adrift in our have worlds pushed even further apart by engineering.” In the ‘Girl with Bubbles’, a minimal girl is revealed playing with bubbles, the air about her wordless and major.  

Encouraged by the environment

Tom is constantly inspired by his speedy environment and memory. “The church in the painting is encouraged by one of the oldest church buildings in the area where I dwell. The hilly landscape in the painting is encouraged by the sight I see from my home. Though it utilized to be inexperienced in my childhood recollections, it is abused by rock quarrying these days. My performs are an abridged and evocative compilation of reminiscences and realities,” he states.

As a voracious client of early Renaissance art, reminiscences of it typically seep into his practice subconsciously, suggests Tom. “Though you could get in touch with my works sensible, it aims to go outside of, transporting the viewer to worlds outside of. I am moved by emotion and my do the job is a frequent exploration of the internal realms of staying.”

Yellow Sky

Yellow Sky
| Photo Credit history: Special Arrangement

Artwork for Tom is a meditative exercise he prefers to perform in solitude. It is also as political as it is private. The ordinary and those in the fringes find place in his narrative. He questions spiritual problems in refined ways — he paints the angel atop the spire with a broken wing, with concrete and steel sticking out.  

Tom graduated with a degree in printmaking from Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan in 1991 and done his masters degree from the School of Fine Arts, M S College, in Baroda in 1998. His near association with legendary artists K G Subramanyan, Bhupen Khakhar and critic R Sivakumar shaped his early artistic influences. He worked in Qatar as an artwork instructor for quite a few several years, and now devotes his time totally to art. 

Tom Vattakuzhy

Tom Vattakuzhy
| Photograph Credit: Unique Arrangement

Tom’s visual language is recognised for the way it engages with light-weight. He makes use of light-weight and shadow freely, still with immense restraint.  In ‘Yellow Sky’, the doorway of a semi-dark room opens out into a ultimate golden glow of dusk. In the burial painting, evening light smears the best of the church, illuminating the leading of the church and the faces of some of the persons gathered for the funeral. “Though I use mild, it is usually not the physical component of it, but the intangible quality of it that draws in me,” suggests Tom.

Out of the 6 works on clearly show, a few have currently been placed into collections of Indian and American collectors, states Projjal Dutta, director of Aicon Up to date art gallery. “Tom brings together a classical and timeless painterly aesthetic with pretty contemporary subjects,” he says.  

The show is on at the gallery in New York till July 16. Tom would also be demonstrating at the Delhi Artwork Truthful following 12 months. 

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