Uninterrupted Speech by Shibu Natesan, the artist’s first show in India after a gap of 8 years. Natesan, who did his BFA in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, and his MA in Printmaking from Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Vadodara, was one of the pioneers to bring back realism to the art scene in India in the 1990s.
Uninterrupted Speech is part of an ongoing ‘inner talk’ that the artist has with himself and his surroundings. Executed in London, these canvases capture two kinds of contrasting scenes that the artist experiences there – vast empty landscapes and a close view of human intimacy. These new works are an articulation of Natesan’s life in London where he experiences a loneliness that is both physical and existential. His paintings, however, are not complaints but are about his awareness of being inserted into a place and situation that is not his own.
Uninterrupted Speech is also Natesan’s attempt at refocusing attention to nature and landscape painting, which the artist feels is disappearing from the art scene in India. “But the idea is not so much about the landscape as it is about trying to capture the sense of an absent or present self within this landscape,” says Natesan.
Shibu Natesan was born in 1966 in Vakkom, Kerala. He completed his BFA in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1987. In 1991, he completed his MA in Printmaking from Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. He has been an artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, from 1996 to 97. His previous solo exhibition in India was in 2005; Existence of Instinct organized by Sakshi Gallery in New Delhi. His works have been displayed at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; The World Economic Forum, Switzerland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; Blackburn Museum, England etc.
The artist lives and works in London, Thiruvananthapuram and Vadodara.