With the help of AstaGuru, the Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA) presented The Shadows of Absence, the renowned artist Tom Vattakuzhy’s first solo exhibition in India. From July 11 to July 20, 2025, the exhibition took place at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata.

The Shadows of Absence represented a long-awaited moment of arrival for those who had followed Tom’s work, whether through his stirring early illustrations for literary magazines or his most recent appearances at the Kochi Biennale Pavilion and the India Art Fair.

Tom Vattakuzhy was born in Kerala, and his artistic career included time spent in Santiniketan, Baroda, and overseas. His work was grounded in a deep sense of empathy and was heavily impacted by literature, humanist philosophy, and social interaction. His luminous and subdued style combined the quiet intimacy of Kerala’s home life with the rigor of Renaissance realism and surrealist overtones.

The presentation of sixteen significant recent works, brought together for the first time, was what made this exhibition especially noteworthy. These canvases, which were mostly completed in the last few years and had never been exhibited in India, provided a unique chance to appreciate the entire emotional and formal spectrum of Vattakuzhy’s work. Together, they prompted viewers to delve deeply into his visual language and reflect on how his art addressed both individual recollections and collective history, particularly in light of Kerala’s shifting social landscapes in the present day.

The Shadows of Absence subtly but effectively reaffirmed painting’s ability to reflect, reveal, and remember at a time when the medium’s function was being called into question more and more in light of conceptual and digital trends. In addition to marking a significant turning point in Tom Vattakuzhy’s career, the exhibition served as a tribute to a practice that had grown steadily and deliberately out of the public eye.

The exhibition, which was curated by renowned art historian R. Siva Kumar, provided a nuanced and careful interpretation of Vattakuzhy’s work, situating it within broader art historical and cultural trends while preserving its intensely personal core.

Priyanka Dutta