Born in Muvattupuzha in 1967. Tom Vattakuzhy is a figurative painter, printmaker and illustrator who lives and works at Muvattupuzha, his home town in Kerala. Tom demonstrated an innate artistic talent from a pre- adolescent age. Tom Vattakkuzhy,
Born in Muvattupuzha in 1967. Tom Vattakuzhy is a figurative painter, printmaker and illustrator who lives and works at Muvattupuzha, his home town in Kerala. Tom demonstrated an innate artistic talent from a pre- adolescent age. Tom Vattakkuzhy, who has repurposed the genre of painting or reopened the question of its relevance in our times where images seep every second into everyday life. Tom’s philosophical insights, visual reflections on the human interiority, and astute observations on human existence conjure a practice that interrogates our relation with visuality. Through this rigorous engagement, he deconstructs the very fabric of reality; he puts to test our comfortable relationship with the image, objects, spirituality, and home. The objects in the still life, the human figures with haunting expressions, and the centrality of light coagulate together in a vortex of fragments, to shatter the very idea of comfortable seeing.
One of his History paintings titled ‘Death of Gandhi’ received a nation wide acclaim and found its way to the cover painting of Kerala budget in 2020.
Academics
Soon after his school education, resolved to be an artist in life, he began to attend a Diploma course at a local art school he knew.
He Joined Kalabhawan, Santiniketan in 1991 where he graduated with a degree in printmaking in 1996. Upon completing his master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda in 1998.
Awards
AIFACS Award, New Delhi in 1997 and 1998.
Lalita Kala Academy Award, Kerala in 1997.
National Scholarship, HRD, New Delhi in 1996.
Haren Das Award, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta in 1995.
