Kerala Artist Tom Vattakuzhy's London, Paris Exhibitions Explore Human Frailty

Tom Vattakuzhy’s paintings were being installed in Paris when student protests escalated into arson and looting, bringing the city into a state of chaos. The experience placed the uncertainty and instability he has explored through painting directly in front of him.

When art met unrest

Vattakuzhy had been curious about how his paintings would be viewed in an entirely different cultural milieu at his recent show in Paris. Instead, as his selection of works, Under the Changing Sky, was being installed at La Monnaie de Paris, widespread unrest unfolded across the city.

What began as student protests escalated into arson and looting. The artist soon found himself inside a supermarket as it was being looted.

“It was frightening and disorienting, an experience I am still processing,” Vattakuzhy says. He had spent years exploring uncertainty and instability through painting, but encountering those conditions directly in life gave them a different force.

“It brought a new and unsettling immediacy to concerns I have long explored in my work,” he says. The events in Paris therefore became more than a setting around his exhibition. They gave a direct and unsettling immediacy to themes that had already shaped his practice.

Presented at The Third Space at Asia NOW Paris and curated by Valentina Rosas Saad, the paintings depict dramatic vistas with skies rendered in exhilarating tones. Through the three works on show, Vattakuzhy explores the uncertainty involved in choosing a path while also seeking quiet reflection.

“For me, this is a reminder that paintings do not remain confined to the circumstances in which they are made,” he says from Paris. “They travel, encounter new audiences and sometimes acquire meanings even the artist could not have foreseen.”

A London show about unstable ground

The artist is also showing solo for the first time in London, at AstaGuru, as part of Asian Art 2026. The collection of nine works, Shifting Ground, opened on October 14 and focuses on uncertainty and the possibility that the ground beneath one’s feet could become unstable.

Deeply moored in Keralam’s socio-cultural landscape, the works question the transitions that shape human lives. The idea of shifting ground extends beyond a physical surface in the collection, pointing towards the changes and uncertainties that affect people and their lives.

“It was particularly exciting to be in London as it was Frieze Week (October 14 to 18) when the show opened,” Vattakuzhy says. He describes that period as a time when the city comes alive with art and some of the finest works from around the world are on view.

“I could see that people connected with my work. It is always encouraging for an artist,” he says. That response mattered to him as the London works carried narratives rooted in an Indian context while raising questions that extend beyond it.

The layers within a domestic scene

Vattakuzhy’s paintings are deceptively layered and encourage viewers to look beyond their immediate appearance. One example is Drift, a 60x72 inch oil on canvas displayed at AstaGuru.

The painting is set in a domestic space and uses the artist’s characteristic interplay of light and dark. Its apparently simple composition invites repeated viewing, with each return capable of shifting the viewer’s perspective a little.

A front porch in the painting shows a child reaching towards a pink balloon suspended in mid air. A woman in a long pink nightgown watches with a hint of amusement on her face. A man sits on a low wall, lost in thought.

The roof of the porch is formed by a political poster bearing the word ‘Liberation’ in bold red lettering. The image connects an ideology that once promised to transform the world with the roof under which a family struggles to survive.

The scene brings together the private space of a home and the political ideas that surround it. Even though Vattakuzhy’s narratives emerge from an Indian context, the questions they raise extend beyond that context.

Humanism, controversy and self-censorship

Social observations and political undercurrents continue to shape Vattakuzhy’s works. The artist, however, says he exercises a certain “self-censorship” today.

He faced controversy at the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2025, when Christian groups objected to one of his works, Supper at a Nunnery. The groups claimed that the painting distorted Christ’s Last Supper.

The painting depicts Mata Hari, the historically documented Dutch dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during the First World War. She is shown surrounded by nuns in a setting that could be described as a reimagination of The Last Supper.

“It was not intended to hurt anyone. My work has always carried humanism at its core,” Vattakuzhy says. He describes the nuns in the painting as tragic reflections of people who have been victimised and have lived their entire lives in a patriarchal system.

The central figure, Mata Hari, is a representation of grace under fire, according to the artist. The incident gave him much to reflect upon.

“How do we see religion? Is it just an establishment that exists externally? Has it lost its core essence? Have we lost space for open dialogues?” he asks. His questions return to the concerns that run through the paintings in both Paris and London: instability, belief, transition and the difficulty of finding a secure path.

Presented by the Institute of Indian Art, Shifting Ground is on till November at AstaGuru London. Under the Changing Sky is at The Third Space at Asia NOW Paris till October 24.

Source: The Hindu