T. V. Santhosh (b. 1968, Kerala) is a prominent contemporary Indian artist whose practice interrogates the pervasive presence of violence in today’s globalised world. He completed his BFA at Santiniketan in 1994 and his MFA in Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, in 1997.

Santhosh’s work is deeply rooted in the visual language of contemporary media. Drawing from images sourced from newspapers, television, and the internet, he reconfigures moments of war, terrorism, and political unrest into large-scale, psychologically charged paintings. A defining feature of his style is the use of solarised colour schemes that evoke photographic negatives. Combined with a meticulous, near photo-realist rendering, this inversion destabilises familiar imagery, transforming it into unsettling, allegorical scenes. His compositions often feature figures in contorted or vulnerable positions, heightening a sense of disquiet.

Central to his practice is an exploration of how violence is mediated and internalised. Rather than depicting conflict as spectacle, Santhosh examines the ideological and technological frameworks, ranging from state power to scientific advancement, that produce and sustain it. Recurring motifs such as the battlefield and the laboratory underscore the entanglement of knowledge and terror while also reflecting on the ways media constructs and circulates images of crisis. His work ultimately probes the experience of the citizen-subject, revealing how individuals perceive and absorb these mediated realities.

Santhosh’s solo exhibitions include One Hand Clapping/Siren at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2003), Unresolved Stories at Nature Morte, New Delhi (2004), False Promises at Grosvenor Gallery, London (2005), A Room to Pray at Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich (2008), and Blood and Spit at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York (2009). His work has also been featured in major international exhibitions at institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts, reflecting his continued engagement with global artistic and political discourse.

The artist lives and works in Mumbai.