Shibu Natesan

3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, 2005
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Lancashire, 2006

Natesan trained as a printmaker from the MS University of Baroda before serving as an artist-in-residence for two years at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.  "He works through a particular method of startling photographic simulation of the real. It is then rendered tense and reminiscent through an astounding elision of symbols, challenging the comfort of recognition. In the seven oil canvases displayed in the Existence of Instinct series he juxtaposes synthetic and often glossy media imagery with those of wild creatures in a seamless space resulting in a stunning encounter. Rooted in fantasy, large in scale, bold in design and execution, these images have the repulsive force of a nightmare and the charm of a dream." (Bhavna Kakar, Art & Deal, 2005).

"[Natesan] chooses to work as a realist using two strategies — directness and detachment. His details tie his subjects to a concrete reality but this perfection adds a certain detachment or emotional estrangement. Viewing Shibu Natesan's paintings and reading Marquez create a similar presence of magic realism. Natesan's 'real-ness' is literal but yet it does not seen familiar. His canvases are spaces inhabited by the presence of absence." (ibid.)