T V Santosh

Artville artist of the day: T V Santosh

Untitled
Year: 2014
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 36 x 48 in | 91.4 x 121.9 cm
Through a silky, infra-red lens Santhosh creates emotional portraits in which the subject is, interestingly, part of the middle ground of the composition. Smoldering in reds and orange, the texture and color of their flesh evokes metal that glows orange as it’s heated. Tending towards imagery sourced from media coverage of terrorism and war, Santhosh provides us with provocative and challenging pieces. The inverse, monochromatic quality of the shadows and highlights allude to film negatives, suggesting an element of supervision and subjection by the media. Santosh is also an accomplished sculptor, using white fiber glass and scrolling neon messages to evoke the “banality of evil”—term coined by Hannah Arendt.

Images presented through high contrast pearly filters are characteristic of Santosh’s work. In a series of paintings from the late 2000s, red-orange and light bulb yellow is puddled with waxy, minty green impressions; the air is ablaze and the message is feverish. In the foreground “X”s and crosses and distant suns float in space as if between the subject of the piece and us the viewer, an apparition witnessed by both.

Born in Kerala, T.V.Santhosh earned his B.F.A. from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan, West Bengal, and his M.F.A. in Sculpture, from M.S.U, Baroda. Santhosh has exhibited his work at numerous international art galleries and museums. Prominent museum shows include 'India Xianzai' Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, 2009; 'Passage to India, Parts I and II New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen Collection', at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, UK, 2008 and 2009; 'Aftershock, Sainsbury Centre, Contemporary Art Norwich, England, 2007; 'Continuity and Transformation' promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy, 2007, 'GSK Contemporary' at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2008 and 'The Empire Strikes Back' at the Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2010.The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India

Courtesy: www.saffronart.com
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