Shibu Natesan

Shibu Natesan was born in Trivandrum in 1966. He studied painting at the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum in the 1980s, an era that shaped his taste through Latin American cinema and literature. In 1989 he completed an MA in Printmaking at M.S. University, Baroda, where he absorbed the narrative concerns of the Baroda School and was influenced by Bhupen Khakhar. His early work used photoreal techniques to examine imbalances in social and political power, drawing on influences such as Gerhard Richter, Richard Hamilton and Vija Celmins.

His first major solo show, The Futility of Device, opened at Sakshi Gallery in 1995. He attended a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 1996 and 1997 and received the Uriot Prize. In the late 1990s and early 2000s his work responded to political turmoil and cultural change. With polished surfaces and metallic paint he created images that prompted reflection on society, religion and migration. He gradually moved from photographic modes to plein air and still life painting.

His recent work focuses on landscape and still life, with close attention to light, shadow and atmosphere, inspired by nineteenth and early twentieth century European painters. He studies changing conditions with a sharp eye while emphasizing painterly presence and the calm painting gives him. He balances narrative drive with painterly inquiry, posing questions with restraint and precise technique and attentive colour.

Natesan has exhibited widely in India and abroad. Solo presentations include Grosvenor Gallery, London; Aicon Gallery and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; and Galerie Nanky de Vreeze, Amsterdam. Selected group participations include Sightings: Out of the Wild at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Bhupen Khakhar’s Contemporaries at Grosvenor Gallery, Mapmakers II at Aicon Gallery, shows at CSMVS Mumbai and Jehangir Art Gallery, the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, ARS 01 at Kiasma, and Pictures of Pictures at Arnolfini and Norwich Gallery.

Submitted by Art Alive Gallery