The seventh edition of Abir India’s First Take 2023 is in the selection function. ‘First Take’ is designed for emerging artists across India and is now a guiding light in the contemporary Indian Art scene. The jury will choose the best out of the lot, and ten awards will be awarded; but the selection process is challenging due to the number of proposals. Murali Cheeroth is an Artist who is part of Abir India’s First Intake 2023 and offers his expertise to this grant selection process.
‘We must understand the transitions that happen in art. It’s unfair if we don’t identify this when the world is transforming entirely, Artists Murali Cheeroth said when he was taken charge of Kerala Lalit Kala Academy. Murali Cheeroth is a Malayali artist, educator and activist, bearing a Chairman position in Kerala Lalit Kala Academy. He has completed his BFA from Thrisur Fine Arts College and his MFA in Print-Making. He has participated in several solo and group exhibits in India and abroad for the last four decades.
Murali Cheeroth got Kanoria Scholarship for Print Making in 1997 and the Kerala State Lalit Kala Academy award, Junior Fellowship, research in fibre art in 1997-99.
Exhibitions
Murali Cheerot is an affluent artist who created artwork in different mediums and domains and was frequently exhibited worldwide; major ones include the two men show at Kashi art gallery 2007, Redding Paint, a group show at soul flower gallery Bangkok 2007, Waging Peace, at Arts for Peace Gallery, New York, in Jan. 2008, Rock+music+art Group show organized by Gallery Art Resource, Mumbai.
In 2005, a show titled ‘The Second Coming -The Quotable Stencil -Part Two’, Tao Art Gallery. In 2006, Murali Cheerot attended more than five solo and group shows, including a Group show organized by the gallery Open eyed Dreams, Mumbai, ‘Paper flute’ works on paper at Gallery Espace. Curated by Johny M.L, ‘Waging peace’ international Exhibition curated by Troy West and Claudia Flynn, Rhode Island USA, Three man show with George Martin, Vinay K D at ViART Art gallery, New Delhi, Gandhi Satyagraha centenary exhibition, Travancore art gallery New Delhi and Kizo gallery Durban South Africa ‘Recurrence’ exhibition of paintings, New Delhi.
In 2009, Murali Cheerot showcased his works worldwide, including a Solo Show: Unmarked, Viart Gallery, New Delhi. Signs 2009, curated Video Festival, Thiruvananthapuram. Connective Delineation, FSCA, Mumbai, Passage to India, Part Two New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen Collection, Wolverhampton, U K, Metamorphosis, PAC Gallery, Cincinnati. Video Wednesdays, curated by JohnyML, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, Art Chicago Presented by PAC gallery Cincinnati. Meet the Artist at Chicago Art Fair, USA, The Art of India – 20 Years of Contemporary Indian Art, Munich. Germany, Ways of Seeing, Galley Soulflower, Bangkok, Thailand.
Spectrum is a show curated by Sarayu Doshi, Abu Dhabi. His works are housed in many important private collections in Japan, France, Canada, Holland and India.
Work and Life
According to the artist, his working approach is “a kind of extraction system that draws on tiny concerns about uber urbanization, frenzied globalization and the visual/virtual stimulation therein, and folds and unfolds them into another reality to simplify their characteristics and relationships to build a new visual experience that is clear and vivid”. Before he settled in Bangalore, Cheeroth lived in multiple cities and used his understanding as an “outsider” to declare his art.
Murali Cheerot’s works display the visual commentary element of social settings and mention cultural facilities and identities in society. Murali often uses society as a range of mastery to unlearn the system’s prejudice; for this, he vividly uses the new media and advertisement. Through deformed, distorted, and multi-layered to create overlapping perspectives, Murali Cheerot transforms the subject into
His work is vivid commentaries and observations of cultural structures and identities in society. Often stitching together a collage of jarring imagery, Cheeroth renders his work with neon saturations that bear resemblance more to new media and advertisement than fine art. While somewhat recognizable, the subjects in Cheeroth’s paintings are deformed, distorted, and multi-layered to create overlapping perspectives.
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