“I am inviting you into my paintings,” says a smiling Tito Stanley, holding the door to his Baroda studio. Dressed in a sequined velvet-black overalls, he stands strikingly large canvases painted in lush greens, blues and reds that fill his space. On closer look, his subject matter and obsession—death, horror and abjection—reveal themselves, embedded within the luminous flowers, trees and rivers that bring to mind the landscape of his home state, Kerala.
An artist who draws and paints all day and most of the night over packs of cigarettes, Stanley, 28, is driven by a desire to know himself. Painting provides a direct line to his deepest self, and the canvas becomes the perfect container for the memories and life-changing experiences. “I don’t know if I’m beautiful or ugly in these paintings,” he says, “This is my vision. If you like it, you can take it.”
In this BMW Artist Film, Stanley opens up about the importance of giving one’s all to art and dreams—to unlock a progressive and emotionally-connected future.
CLOSING: Tito Stanley was born in Abu Dhabi in 1994, and is based in Vadodara, Gujarat where he is pursuing his MVA in Painting. His work will be shown by Anant Art at India Art Fair 2023.