Legacy Art Gallery - Detailed profile of Shibu Natesan

Shibu Natesan. born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and studied Painting and Printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University. Baroda. In 1996 he was selected for a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende in Kunsten. Amsterdam, which was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

His first significant body of work, a series of paintings entitled "The Futility of Device" derives from a feudal history excavated in painstaking detail, the relics displayed in the grim chambers of memory, symbols of aggression which repeat themselves with oppressive regularity. The atmospheric quality of these works, some of them based on photographs of archaeological remains such as the caves at Ajanta, is heightened by the use of metallic paint on canvas.

his recent "Missing" series of paintings is representative of the change that occurred during his stay at amsterdam. The use of photography here is even more literal, though still adhering to a stubborn involvement with the processes of painting, their capacity to shift and re-focus the gaze to glean hitherto unperceived information.

There is a simulation which resembles the original to a startling degree, but which in fact prompts a set of readings which are contrary to what was intended, thus displacing the meaning without significantly altering it's appearance. Things are not what they seem to be; the actuality and sanity which these images once claimed is suddenly suspect.

In addition to winning several regional and national awards and scholarships, he has also won the Uriot prize at the Rijksakademie. He has exhibited his paintings in solo exhibitions and group shows in renowned galleries across India, and has shown his works internationally in countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands.

Shibu Natesan lives and works in Baroda.