Artist Spotlight — Vimal Chandran
Vimal Chandran is a multidisciplinary visual artist from India who majorly works on illustrations, photography, and film. His works are inspired by native folk tales, pop culture, poetry, and childhood memories. His skillful concoction of storytelling and craft is widely appreciated and recognized by art enthusiasts and media around the globe. He has collaborated with brands like Lamborghini, Uber, Disney, Amazon, Vivo & many more. Vimal is also the founder of the brand ‘Unposted Letters’.
How do you enter the Art world?
I have been painting ever since I was a kid. I guess I started painting when I was around 3.5–4 years old. When I was a kid my father bought me a watercolor set and ever since it was my major art medium. Art was always been a part of my school life and I did my first exhibition when I was in my 3rd standard. After my schooling, I did engineering in IT from where I learned digital tools like photoshop and illustrator. After completing college I started working as a software engineer in MNCs like Philips and Honeywell and I used to practice Art after my office time and weekends. In 2013- I quit my corporate job and started doing art full time and in the same year I did my first solo exhibition ‘ I have seen the Labyrinth and it looks like a straight line’ in Bangalore.
Exhibitions and works
- I have seen the labyrinth and it looks like a straight line, solo exhibition Bangalore.
- Escape Velocity, solo exhibition at Kochi.
- To Italy for Italy, an art and photography project with Lamborghini India featuring artists from different countries from the Asia Pacific region. I was representing India on this project.
- Unposted Letters, a digital illustration series that became viral on social media and also got featured on Bored Panda, Culturainquieta.
- Art curator for Port Muziris project by Marriot.
Share your journey in NFT Artworld
Folk Scifi is a series where I am exploring a new genre called ‘Indo-Futurism’. I have tried to reimagine characters from native traditions and mythology in a Science fiction environment out of my childhood memory — which is either real or constructed.
The folk tales and myths from my native[Southern part of India] are older than thousands of years. These stories are passed on from generation to generation with different versions over the years.
As an artist, I am adding my own version from my own experiences to these age-old stories and minting them to the blockchain for the first time in history.
Each of these illustrations depicts a unique story which is pointing towards the culture and history of my land, its people, and its geography. All these illustrations are depicted with a tinge of ‘magical realism’ by introducing the elements of Scifi Pop culture as part of the narrative.
