Inspired by the real tactile world around

His work employs these industrialized mediums as the basic iconography. He then steps back a touch to reframe and use the processes of translation, transliteration, transmutation. With his careful subversions of photo-realism, he skillfully tries to blur, highlight and amplify the trajectory and movement of his subjects. They are not location-specific rather they universal in nature as he looks to bring out the changes in the urban landscape.

This is how Murali Cheeroth conceptualizes and creates his unconventional pieced. The socially sensitive artist’s oeuvre, imbued with themes revolving around the rapid development and the underlying violet streak as part of it in Indian society, denotes influences of his immediate milieu and fast-paced city life. A mix of curious abstract and figurative forms, coupled with the biomorphic and the geometric, his style and palette allude to the storybook illustrations, in accord with the reality — specifically with space and time.

A detailed note by Dr. Verena Widorn on the Initial access website spells out his artistic inspirations and influences as follows: “He creates scenes in an unusual perspective wherein human figures depicted as mythical and isolated, at once, are often mere fragments. They are placed in worlds, immersed in the glare of neon light, presenting a stark contrast to the realistically portrayed industrial sites and objects. His paintings exude dramatic tension heightened by the sharp lines and blurred parts. Different levels of reality, interwoven and placed in multiple layers, construct a scene from diverse points-of-view.”

Through his works looks to trace both the psychological and physical aspects of human emotions and humdrum daily life. According to him, his working process - a sort of extraction system - draws on concerns regarding frenzied globalization, uber urbanization and the inherent visual or virtual stimulation. The idea is to fold and unfold the same into another reality so as to simplify their basic characteristics as well as relationships for a new, vivid visual experience.

Summing up his practice, he has stated, “I use hybrid, technological colors to elaborate my themes. My work largely deals with the urban life. There is no specific single theme. I tackle several related themes in my work - developmental, environmental and cultural. Such themes get juxtaposed and remain interrelated.”