Born in 1977

Education :
2004 : MFA (painting) from University of Hyderabad.
2002 : BFA (painting) from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala University.
1998 : Graduated in History from Calicut University.

Solo Shows :
2007 : Solo shows at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai.
2006 : “Fraklin Templeton Investments” at State Gallery of Fine Arts.
2004 : “Earthworm a prophet” at Hyderabad.

Group Show : 
2007 : Nature Morte Art Gallery, New Delhi.
2006 : Artist in Residency at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad.
2003 : Participated in Peers Khoj, Residency, New Delhi.
2001 : National Workshop College of Art, New Delhi.

Om currently lives and works in Hyderabad, India.

Artist Statement

“Sans any reason I started to draw the hills, houses, trees, moon and gods on the white wall with black charcoal which burnt the oven. Being a child I was unaware of the further perception, the possibility of becoming an artist, to create every thing on flat surfaces with the same charcoal or paint.”

    I wish to bring in an experience of painting rather than create imageries. It is the combination of subjective and objective surroundings, bringing together imagery from contradictory or unexpected sources, historical, geographical and contemporary. Through this process I enjoy the relationship between abstract and figurative art, and it helps me to resist being categorized as belonging to a certain school or thought. But still the total idea of my painting is not far away from the conventional thoughts; it is close to life and its existence. My recent visual language has evolved through my lived experience in urban and rural spaces. It creates a kind of ambiguity between reality and unreality, chaos of culture and a spiritual quest.

            There are two alternatives for comprehending the world -either we believe that every thing is real and true, or we consider every thing to be an illusion. My visual perception
begins from this point, as a search for the constant truth in the reality which surrounds me. Reality doesn’t merely mean the socio-political arena, it relates to the most inner truth of every thing. The outer and the inner reality comprise reality in its entirety. As a result, the surface of the medium occupies itself with colour and form in the most realistic way, as a fatal transmission of life.

           Negative and positive energies are working in equilibrium in the universe. However while talking from the perspective of a human being I will prefer oxygen as the positive energy. This is the way in which the visual space occupies positive and negative
energies in my work, taking the form of different objects and ideas .Idea of truth is constant. It has a standard value and the process of practicing art is a search of this standard value, the total value of this process becomes the final output of the work of art.

          When we talk about the cultural specificity in the present context, it is necessary to evaluate the relevant facts. The Indian thought is more metaphysical than the Western. There are many answers to the westerner’s questions. That is not my point. Currently the cultural aspects that we share with the west should be discussed.The culture is formed by the way of behavior of living in a society. Critics may say that an Indian artist, in the post modern frame, should reflect the Indian style. Then may I ask what Indian style is; past and present? What is our life style? What is our academic system? What is our entire infrastructure based on? Our political system?.. What I have learned through the academic system is purely the western concepts. But what I have acquired for myself is the Indian philosophy. So my work reflects both aspects.

       Through prehistoric times to the present mankind has evolved. However the basic character, needs and expressions haven’t changed. What we had in primitivism is still being practiced, knowingly or unknowingly. So the basic fact on what was behind the prehistoric man or primitive man to practice art, still remains. But the prehistoric man would have never considered practicing art as art. At the beginning of language and life, the function of art related to the existence, to attain the magical power to conquer the enemy. Later man tried to beautify this process. The problem of existence was beautified. It may be in the form of a useful pot, a tool, song, dance or any kind of sensible medium. Whatever was the idea behind this process of beautification, it was linked with his existence. When we go through the history of art we come across all good works of art sharing some similar aspects. These aspects are timeless; it crosses all geographical and psychological boundaries. At the same time it makes a dialogue with its social period and I still believe in this idea.

         Recent works deal with the issue of urbanization. . Urbanization is not avoidable. How we take care of our depleting ecological system is what matters. The geographical space in my work is influenced by the surrounding of Hyderabad (India), where I live and work. The boulders, lakes and desiccated lands, and the opposite and extreme climates open up a new sensual world in front of me. When I watch the Hyderabad at night, I see beauty of the place illuminated by thousand lights .but in day time what I can see are narrow roads of rural India. Villages are being neither villages nor cities. It remains as just a bizarre contradiction of urbanization. The evictees are forced to become part of cultural chaos, and are sucked into the entrails of the giant economic machines.   Drawing this attention on this issue I am not making a statement with my work, rather I try to explore the possibility of painting in it.

          As a painter I give attention to both visual sensibility and content. My painting atmosphere is not representing certain day time instead of it creates a kind of twilight mood. It may be a time after a rain or before it. Being a painter my primary concern is bringing out a meditative atmosphere in my painting.  Lights are always part of my work. I think from the age of cave painting we can see certain kind of light produced by the works it self. Later it was converted to religious light then to mechanical light. For this all, certain source of light was illustrated. In the romantic period it became more subjective. About me the lights are the combination of mechanical representation as well as a spiritual gratification.

     Finally I would like to say that, I am living in this present world. I see the world as real when my eyes are open and as an imagination when my eyes are shut. My doubts about the universe are not cleared and nothing satisfies me-the Religion the politics-the ideologies. I have to find out the answers my self for my questions. I am still in search of that truth and I will continue this quest until it is disclosed. For me, Art is the apt medium in this regard. Ultimately, my works are just like a pendulum which swing between the quest for the total existence and the anxieties over the present realities.