Featured Artists: Indrapromit Roy, Shanthamani Muddaiah, Riyas Komu, Murali Cheeroth, Sabitha Kadannappalli, Aji VN
Aji V.N.’s works are an investigation into the picture-making possibilities of line, form, tone, dimension, presence, distance, and illusion. In the nature of things as well as their representation, one can find an affinity, a basic repertoire that can be observed and drawn out by the artist. And yet his paintings do retain something of a narrative quality and a sense that something is happening-something perilous and fraught with anxiety. Inevitably moving through an evolutionary process, his drawings and paintings seem to be about an “elsewhere”. The artist believes in a multi-directional evolution in which any moment or place could be a point of departure. Maybe one could describe this view as a post modern idea of multiplicity.
Academics
Aji V.N. born in 1968 at Kallissery, Kerala. His education took him from the art school in Trivandrum, to the Delhi College of Art where he enrolled as a student of painting. In the capital, he was able to indulge his enthusiasm for classical music as well as trawl the city’s museums in an attempt to compensate for what he perceived to be an insufficient knowledge of his own cultural heritage. At the National Museum he familiarized himself with temple sculpture, miniature painting and Chola bronzes, while at the Crafts Museum he came into contact with tribal, village and temple artifacts from all over India. From Delhi he had moved to Baroda to be part of that city’s artist community, then back to Trivandrum for a brief period teaching in the art school, and then finally to Rotterdam to be with his wife who was in Dutch.
Soliloquy (cacti)
The word ‘sabr’ derived from Arabic in Hindi and Urdu means patience or wait but in original Arabic it could also mean ‘cactus’. Sometime in 2019 I went to see a cactus garden. They wanted us to create a mural there that will accommodate both a stylised representation of the cacti and a realistic one of our political masters on the same wall! An idea replete with unacknowledged ironies. I took a good look and documented some of the specimens on display of these strange looking, hardy, adaptive plants known to survive in harsh conditions where little else can. These cacti come in all shapes and sizes and often display perfect geometry and stunning patterns of form that invite touch but for the visible hostility the spiky thorns! ‘Spine’ is what these thorns are called technically and touch you must not! The attraction and repulsion, the lure laced with danger that resides even in the smallest specimens is hard to overlook.
Then the pandemic hit us with its full force and stopped life, as we knew it. Things presumed to be normal are liable to change with a very short notice in the new normal. The images in this set chose to come tumbling out at that moment, almost on their own and that is all there is! I realised another interesting coincidence,
Academics
Indrapramit Roy was born in 1964. He studied print making at the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Baroda. He was also awarded the Inlaks Scholarship to study MA Painting at the Royal College of Art, London, which also included a term each at Cite des Arts, Paris and Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin on Erasmus exchange grant.
Roy has had over 80 Group shows, 17 solo shows and several art camps and workshops to his credit. He has taken part in Group shows in London, Berlin, New York, Melbourne, Bangkok and Yangon and has represented India in Asian Art Exhibition in Macao and the Cairo Biennale, Cairo, “India at 70” at Bangkok (2018) and India Art Fair (2019), New Delhi. In February 2013 he completed a mural (12 x 26 feet) for Terminal-2 of the new Mumbai International Airport. He has been teaching painting at his alma mater – Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda since 1995 and presently is an Associate Professor and the Dean of Students. He lives and works in Vadodara.
Murali Cheeroth has exhibited in over 100 significant shows across the globe in the last two decades. Among his collectors are corporate institutions, museums and private art collectors. In the past he worked extensively with printmaking and theatre, now he primarily works on painting, video and performance. His visual works refer to a wide variety of sources in the cultural sphere and contain within them a deep conversation with the history of representation in visual media, fine art, cinema, music and architecture.
He has also taught in CEPT, Ahmedabad, Kanoria Centre for Art, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore and Chenna. Some of his major exhibitions include ‘passage to India’ – the New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen collection in UK (2009); Indian Art summit in New Delhi, SH contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, Chicago Art Fair and London Art Fair in 2010, Colombo Beinnale , 2012, Chalo India – A group show of Contemporary Indian Artists at Basel Art Centre, Basel, Switzerland.
Academics
Murali Cheeroth is a visual artist by profession, he possesses BFA and MFA from Shantinikethan, West Bengal, a Diploma in Painting From Govt:Collage of Fine Arts Thrissur and advanced computer diploma in digital media.
Riyas Komu is a renowned artist and curator who has exhibited his works worldwide, including the Venice Biennale. His works — paintings, sculptures , videos , photographs and installations — dwell on a range of subjects that include war, displacement, migration, violence, history, conflict, betrayal,peace, football, multiculturalism, diversity, Art and The Indian Constitution. He is the ideator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and co-founder of the Kochi Biennale Foundation. He co-curated the first edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012 and made the biennale as a multidisciplinary educational project as the director of programmes. Komu is the co-founder of URU Art Harbour, a cultural hub in Mattancherry, Kochi, which promotes artists from the region focused on local culture and maritime history. He co-curated the first International Football Film Festival in India at the Goa International Film Festival and Trivandrum International Film Festival in 2012. Komu curated the Kondotty Sufi Festival. He is the artistic director of the acclaimed ‘Sea a Boiling Vessel’ exhibition, an ongoing research project by Aazhi Archives which puts the spotlight on Knowledge + Art + People.
Academics
Riyas completed his Bachelors & Masters in Painting from the Sir J J School of Art in Mumbai in 1999. He co-curated the first edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012 and has been the Director of Programmes of the Kochi Biennale Foundation in the year of 2012, 2014 and 2016 and in this capacity, he has initiated the Students’ Biennale, Children’s Biennale (later named as ABC, Art by Children), Artists Cinema, Music of Muziris, Video Lab, Let’s Talk series & History Now like Talks and Seminars, Pepper House Residency & Exhibition.
Shanthamani Muddaiah
My drawings are a way of thinking through sculptural forms. I often draw repeatedly to convince myself of the need to translate an idea into three dimensions. The three drawings presented here explore the transformative character of fire — how it alters, renews, and ultimately fertilizes the landscape, preparing it for the next cycle of birth and rejuvenation.
Even within a charred, seemingly desolate terrain, life finds a way to emerge. These works are not meant to be declarative statements, but rather quiet observations of nature’s resilience and cycArtistlical transformation.
Academics
Shanthamani Muddaiah Born 1967, Mysore, Karnataka, India.
Education: Master of Arts (Fine) in Painting, M.S. University, Baroda, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, CAVA, Mysore University, Mysore. “Life in Our Hands” Community Project with Settle Stories, Yorkshire,UK, “Neither Tree Nor Ash” Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery, Paris, France, 2025: “CONVERGENCE: TIME| ECOLOGY |PLACE” Splash Gallery, NewDelhi, Participating Kochi Muziris Biennale, India, Participating in Art Brussels, Represented by Suzanne, Tarasieve Gallery, Brussels, Participated in “1’ Otium” show in Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris
Participated “Beyond Body” Galerie Helene Lamarque, Miami, USA etc.
Artist Statement – Drawings
My drawings are a way of thinking through sculptural forms. I often draw repeatedly to convince myself of the need to translate an idea into three dimensions. The three drawings presented here explore the transformative character of fire — how it alters, renews, and ultimately fertilizes the landscape, preparing it for the next cycle of birth and rejuvenation.
Even within a charred, seemingly desolate terrain, life finds a way to emerge. These works are not meant to be declarative statements, but rather quiet observations of nature’s resilience and cyclical transformation.
“Black Landscape” | Ink and Acrylic on Handmade paper | 2024
“interrelations” | Ink and Acrylic on Handmade paper | 2023
“Suspendamic” | Ink and Acrylic on handmade paper| 2023
Shanthamani Muddaiah
Sabitha Kadannappally
Ego is a universal force shaping human existence, influencing relationships, identity, and self-perception. It manifests differently in individuals, shaped by gender, lifestyle, profession, and societal roles. While women’s egos often align with their personal and social navigation, men’s egos are tied to achievement and status. Conflict arises when masculine traits—strength, ambition, assertiveness—are perceived in women, revealing deeper struggles with duality.
Ego is an internal battle, yet it dictates external interactions. To make this invisible struggle tangible, I depict it through fight movements—physical representations of power dynamics, self-doubt, and the push and pull between dominance and equality. These movements symbolize how conflicts with others often mirror internal struggles.
My art invites reflection on how ego shapes human connections, making the invisible visible.
I primarily use female figures to represent all forms of ego, regardless of gender. As a woman, I express this experience authentically, using the female form to embody a broad emotional and psychological spectrum.
Satire and visual perfection enhance my storytelling. Ego is often observed in others with irony, making.
Academics
Sabitha Kadannappally born in 1985 in Thalassery, Kerala, India. She completed BFA sculpture in 2015 from Govt. College of Fine Arts Thrissur, MFA Sculpture in 2018 from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram.
Sabitha was also actively involved in the art and cultural practice from 2015. In 2024, She attended Artist Residency scholarship programme in Switzerland, Entwined group show in Bikaner House, Delhi by Apparao Galleries, Planetary Scale” group exhibition at FILET, London N1, In 2023, ‘Entwined’ a group exhibition in Apparao Galleries, Chennai, Kerala Lalithakala Akademi’s Grant for solo art exhibition, In 2022-2023 IDAM show – Presents Kochi Biennale Foundation, In 2018 students Biennale at Kochi Muziris Biennale.