About

“As a photographer, he does not allow for ready consumption of his work, but poses serious questions by way of his technique, that is making the subjects disappear from sight, making them appear in the psychic space of mind, posing questions before the viewer.”
“The idea of photography like this to me seems closer to the idea of painting where reality is presented before us in a diffracted way. I am very pleased to partake in his endeavours of technique, labour, craft and a way of seeing which reminds us of the limits of reason, culture, thought, and contemporary politics, as we see from the point of view of mortality of bodies and languages.”

Riyas Komu | Artist | Curator | Kochi Biennale Co-Founder | Kochi | 2019

“Shibu Arakkal's contribution to the 2018 Water for Life exhibition in Niagara Falls Ontario has attracted the attention and kind words of many of our visitors.  In his piece “Untitled”, the polished surface and gentle gradations of colour and light succeed in unifying the space and evoking the tranquility of water, arguably the world’s greatest resource.”

Suzanne Moase | Art Curator | Niagara Falls History Museum | Niagara | 2018

“Shibu Arakkal digital artist, combines with great skill traditional and modern photography techniques without forgetting his personal style full of knowledge and research.
In his artworks there is a constant dialogue with the soul and feelings which is not limited only with spaces.
Shibu reveals unusual details that invite the public to travel and interpret his shadows, his colors giving to the viewer the freedom to create his own dreams.
Shibu creates with his artworks a perfect visual synthesis of beauty and emotions.”

Angelina Herrera | International Cultural Promoter | Mexico City | 2018

In Shibu’s imagery one can feel and empathise, while being forced to respond spontaneously to a quest for the emancipation of the self.

Antoine Gaber | Contemporary Film Producer | Artist | Curator | Toronto | 2018

"As we take bracing pleasure in Arakkal’s photographic departures, we are reminded strongly of the philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s suggestion that ‘Imagination is the faculty of deforming images offered by perception, of freeing ourselves from the immediate images; it is especially the faculty of changing images.’"

Ranjit Hoskote | Contemporary Indian Poet | Art Critic | Cultural Theorist | Independent Curator

"These photographs by Shibu Arakkal of Magadi village catch the majestic contours of desolation, almost making silence visible. The perfect stillness which he has captured in the rocks, temple ponds, and deliquescent walls, all haunted by their desolation, in turn transform the viewer into elements of the photographed moment, breathless in anticipation of the next shift in the light."

Girish Karnad | Writer | Playwright | Screenwriter | Actor | Director | July 2012

"The ease with which Shibu Arakkal manages the image, in his photos, is a big help for the spectator (or enjoyer if you prefer) in the acquisition of the meanings that are expressed from these same photos, but we must immediately make it clear that this way of speaking with photography is so fluid because upstream there is a large inner work, which certainly must have cost the author a great effort and a steady application to refine its sensitivity and capacity; if we also add the study, to achieve a wonderful technique, everybody can well understand that the viewer enjoys without effort, without realizing it, through a very big and heavy work of an other."

Umberto Maria Milizia | Art historian | Critic | Former professor of the History of Styles, Academy of Fine Arts Frosinone, Italy | Belforte del Chienti, Italy | May 2012

"Shibu Arakkal merges his longstanding interest in formal structure and abstraction with a humanistic approach, in which technical manipulation creates a synthesis between figures and their backgrounds or surroundings to suggest the passage of time and vulnerability."

Jeffrey Wechsler | Senior Curator | Zimmerli Art Museum | New York | 2011

"It is indeed wonderful how his photographs effortlessly guide you through the happy and sad moments of that time"

Shakti Burman | Artist | Paris | 2011

"We can enlarge our life through a different way to develop our perception. This is the only way to understand our life and the Life. This is the wonderful thing that I see in Shibu Arakkal's art experience. This wonderful sensation is the gift that he gives to me and to everybody that are ready to discover his images without any filter in the eyes and in the heart."

Alfonso Caputo | Artist | Curator | Terra dell'Arte President – MIDAC Museum Director | Tolentino Italy | 2011

"He has the heart of a painter and the mind of a photographer. I think this is a potent combination for a young photographer. He can create his own universe."

Rafique Sayed | Photographer | 2006

"In his unusual collection of photographs there is indeed a certain resonance-a cameo quality of visual intentions and expressional evocations."

Uma Nair | Asian Age | July 2001

"It is obvious that his work is not an attempt to what people want to see. Here we see photography of the purest possible instinct, shorn of most of the vestiges of tradition and through utility of only those facets that make his work what it is today - STRONG and NOBLE."

Sudhir Ramchandran | Photographer | 1998