Tito Stanley SJ

Born in Abu Dhabi and raised in Kerala, Tito's highly vibrant and intensely allegorical art practice anchors itself in the artist's lived experience; in his works we see a language of realism that oscillates between the circumstance of being from another place and encountering the culture of his familial heritage. This unique position, while displacing his presence as an outsider, allows him to simultaneously be part of a reality which he sardonically cuts through and responds to with his visuality. The rich and expressive brushwork which brings to life Tito's iconography responds to Cesar A. Cruz's common aphorism, 'Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed,' and this is especially noteworthy with Tito's honest and head-on examination of death and mortality. Riddled with Christian mythology, Tito's visual landscape is stalked by the haunting spectre of a turbulent and riotous life that has witnessed violent upheavals, communal strife, and personal crises. In incisively commenting on the politics of his surroundings, Tito's works become explicit and shocking, filling the viewer with trepid anxiety and at the same time informing of an emotional yet resilient journey that has only just begun.