T.V. Santosh

T.V. Santhosh was born in Kerala and earned a Bachelor’s degree in fine art, specializing in sculpture, from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan university in 1994. He then studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of M.S. University, Baroda, completing his Master’s degree there in 1997. Santhosh heavily inspired by cinema, news media, art history and popular culture; his work is centered on the exploration of present day crises through images from print media, television and the internet to create eerily realistic canvases replete with meaning that make strong statements about India’s general socio-political situation.

Santhosh’s first solo show ‘One Hand Clapping/Siren’ was presented by the Guild Art Gallery at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2003. Santhosh has since held several solo shows including ‘Blood and Spit’ at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, in 2009; ‘Living with a Wound’ at Grosvenor Vadehra, London, in 2009; ‘A Room to Pray’ at Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich, in 2008; ‘Scars of An Ancient Error’ at the Singapore Art Fair in 2006; ‘False Promises’ at Grosvenor Gallery, London, in 2005; and ‘Unresolved Stories’ at Nature Morte, New Delhi, in 2004. Santhosh has also participated in group shows like ‘Expressions at Tihar’ at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, in 2009; ‘Passage to India, Part II: New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen Collection’ at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, in 2009; ‘My Little India’ at Marella Gallery, Beijing, in 2009; and ‘Where In The World’ at the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, in 2008-09. The artist was awarded Kerala Lalit Kala Academy State Award, a National Scholarship and the Kanoria Scholarship, Ahmedabad, all in 1997.