India, rendered new

Painter · Kerala

Shaji Appukuttan (b. 1970, Kerala) graduated from Government Fine Arts College, Trichur, in 1989 and lives and works in Ernakulam. He paints hills, rivers and forests at large scale in acrylic — not as scenery, but as a society, the social existence of hills, rivers and forests paralleling the essence of human relationships. Built in deep, low-keyed greens and blues, the canopy, water or field is worked close to the picture plane until a single living thing — an egret, a deer, a boat — becomes the one opening in the density, and the point where the picture resolves. His honours include the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi State Award (1992), the Siddhartha Foundation Award (2018) and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, New York (2020–21). Solo exhibitions include Symphony of Land at the Lalithakala Academy Gallery, Kozhikode, and Spiritual Earth at Durbar Hall Gallery, Ernakulam; in 2021 he showed in Lokame Tharavadu, curated by Bose Krishnamachari for the Kochi Biennale Foundation. He is represented by APRE Art House, Mumbai.

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