Untitled Painting

Born: Bangalore, INDIA. Lives and works in Bangalore. Devaraj belongs to a generation of young contemporary Indian artists. The recent recognition of the national award (2004) has positioned him from anonymity to fame. Devaraj explores the possibilities of representing the human conditions. The iconic figure is representation of human kind with the eternal existential question. His humans are distilled from his own time and space and from watching the human pageant. He assimilates them in elements of nature with animated primordial elements. He focuses on the humanist position and portrays his protagonist being self-absorbed in the subconscious or in situations of conflict of karmic existence. They seem to be devoid of all material desire. Who are they? Self styled Yogis from a contemporary Kumbmela, sensual and raw physical tribal and traditional cults, or cyber coolies in search of virtual nirvana from the matrix of life and work.His expressive aesthetic explores their inner landscape, their carry man made mechanical objects or gizmos like new age toys. They seem to emerge from shadows to enact their monologues of measured theatricality, like puppets manipulated by technology. His figures seem to emerge in heroic stances on the zone of conflict- canvas and stand their ground to face contemporary reality. They speak to us in their silences. The artist does not give us answers from the agitated landscape, but seems to represent a journey from uncertainty, from the physical to the phenomenological. - Suresh Jayaram