Important Notice

Born in 1972 in Mysore, Karnataka, Alexis Kersey is a largely self taught artist. He was later brought up in England and eventually returned to India in 1990 to understand and reconnect with the indigenous culture and life. One could say that his visual language has it’s roots in both cultures. He draws his imagery from wide ranging sources, ranging from British textile designs, billboard art to children’s book illustration. He uses the language... Born in 1972 in Mysore, Karnataka, Alexis Kersey is a largely self taught artist. He was later brought up in England and eventually returned to India in 1990 to understand and reconnect with the indigenous culture and life. One could say that his visual language has it’s roots in both cultures. He draws his imagery from wide ranging sources, ranging from British textile designs, billboard art to children’s book illustration. He uses the language of the eclectic company school paintings and puts it in the context of modern living. It is through his work that he expresses his difficulties and dilemma’s of living in the complex modern age.

Kersey has developed an artistic vocabulary that addresses issues of rapid urban development and globalization in contemporary India. This is partially an outcome of his search for his unique artistic identity which is today, to a large extent, shaped by the commercial and market based economy that we live in.

His images are most often directly related to popular culture such as advertisement imagery, hoardings, religious symbols and cinema posters.They have the glossy, finished look of commercial art. He consciously displaces them from their original contexts and juxtaposes with subjects from different cultural backgrounds This metaphorically speaks of the new trends emerging from the processes of globalization in India and it’s diversified cultural society.

Through this body of works, Kersey gets back to the historical position by redefining `imperialism' manifest within the globalised economy. His hybrid iconography comprises forms from Indian art in the nature of yogic representational poses. These are intimately illustrated with imagery of English artillery canons, horse riders, foot soldiers and many other significant visual vocabulary appropriated from Company paintings.

Kersey offers an alternative narrative through this revisitation, where his concerns are about the debilitating effects of globalisation and technology on certain Indian traditional pictorial practices. Though not a trained artist, he chose to study and practice art by interacting with hoarding painters in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Kersey strongly feels that hoarding is a form of art that harbours the rich legacies of Indian pictorial skills.

The artist presently lives and works in Mysore, Karnataka.

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