ANUP MATHEW THOMAS

Anup Mathew Thomas, Kochi (India) 1977

Period of residence: september – november 2016

Working primarily with photography, Anup Mathew Thomas’s works engage ostensibly local narratives, introducing audiences to stories that may have gone missing from the archive. Over the last decade he has produced a series of projects that engage with and make reference to the cultural history of his native Kerala. Predominantly working in series, his images offer access to microhistories and subcultures embedded in the seemingly everyday. He employs both anecdotal and factual narrative styles, and the work often culminates in carefully staged portraiture. In exploring the slippages between documentary and artistic practice, Thomas’s work is consistently in dialogue with the complexities of representation through the photographic image.

He lives and works in Bangalore, India. His participation in group exhibitions include Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2012); The Matter Within, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2011); Generation in Transition, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2011-2012); The Self and the Other, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona and Artium, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2009-10); Reflections of Contemporary India, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2008) and Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie, Arnolfini, Bristol (2009). Solo projects include exhibitions at Gasworks Gallery, London (2007); The Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo (2010) Lothringer13, Munich (2013) and the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok (2016). 

He is a recipient of  The Abraaj Group Art Prize 2014 and the Han Nefkens Foundation – BACC Award for Contemporary Art 2015. 

http://galleryske.com/AnupThomas/index.html