Tom Vattakuzhy (b.1967, Kerala, India) is a figurative painter, printmaker, and illustrator. His carefully rendered paintings, rich with light and subdued tones, are nestled between the real and surreal. Vattakuzhy's intuitive and deliberate compositions evolve from the observed reality, mixing with something inside the artist which lends to a mysterious and contemplative quality. The poignant figures, eloquent in gesture and posture, are imbued with a series of evocative associations and memories.
Vattakuzhy has demonstrated an innate artistic talent from a young age. Soon after his school education, he attended a diploma course at a local art school. It successfully earned him a job as an art teacher, although though his inner longing to be a serious artist continued. However, resigned to his parents’ wishes that he pursue a stable career, Vattakuzhy continued teaching until he mustered the courage to defy them and pursue his life ambition in 1991, when he joined Kalabhawan. He susbequently graduated with his prinmaking degree in 1996. His exposure to the works of Benode Behari and Ramkinkar Baij, and his close associations with doyen artists like K.G. Subramanyan, Somnath Hore, and art historian R. Sivakumar had a significant impact on the formation of his artistic priorities and way of life. Upon completing his master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda in 1998, in lieu of keeping him and his art practice in line with the winds of the changing art scene, he delved into a process of unlearning and relearning, reassessing art from medieval times to the present. This became a crucial step in his artistic career and a significant influence in the formation of his visual language with structural solidity and organization. In 2010, after realizing that the various teaching jobs had taken a toll on his art practice, he left education to devote himself solely to his art.
Later, with a passion to bring art closer to the society he was born and raised in, he began illustrating periodicals with virtually stand-alone paintings he calls ‘story-paintings.’ However, a controversy over one of his works resulted in the retraction of the magazine itself. It left him disillusioned and demoralized, finally doing away with it in 2016. One of his historical paintings, titled ‘Death of Gandhi’ received nationwide acclaim and found its way to the cover painting of the Kerala budget in 2020.
Recent highlights include his first international solo exhibition, Song of the Dusk (Aicon Contemporary, New York, 2022), which explored themes of solitude and pandemic-era grief, and ongoing participation in major art fairs across India. Vattakuzhy has received numerous honors, including the AIFACS Award, New Delhi (1997, 1998), the Kerala Lalita Kala Academy Award (1997), the National Scholarship from the Ministry of HRD, New Delhi (1996), and the Haren Das Award, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta (1995).
The artist lives and works in Muvattupuzha, Kerala.