Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke is delighted to present the work of two remarkable, distinctive painters — Sosa Joseph (b. 1971 in Parumala, Kerala) and Ratheesh T. (b. 1980 in Kilimanoor, Kerala) — whose works are a counterpoint to one another in every regard. The ten oil-on-canvas paintings shown here are structured around the genre of Still Life.
For an artist who works at the boundary of figuration and abstraction, Sosa Joseph’s paintings are remarkably studied. She had explored still-lives in earlier series such as “Object Lessons” (2009), and Meenchatti (2014) — a set of paintings of raw fish in clay pots. A gifted colourist, Sosa paints texture and shape spontaneously, imparting to her canvases an expressive translucence.
Ratheesh T.’s paintings are animated by particularity and luminosity. In one of the exhibited works, the artist is seated at a dining table eating Idli-Sambar — local fare — with a knife and fork. The table top is covered with arrangements of fruit. This recalls an earlier work by the artist of which he had said: "Amma was sitting near the dining table on which some papaya fruits were kept. When we were poor, we used to eat a lot of papaya.” Seen through this lens, Ratheesh’s still-lives embody narratives.