About Me

Reji Joseph embraced his creativity which had led him to a passion in arts. He describes his
work as emotional and romantic.

Reji is ever inspired by the magic of nature, love, and simplicity. Hence, some of his works
endeavours to tell a story without relying on realistic depictions. To him, the perception of
the subject matters rather than the subject matter itself and meaningful subjects intrigue him.
Reji chooses ideas that resonate with him and is drawn to vibrant and bold hues, which has
become his signature. He works with themes that provide room for creativity, imagination,
and interpretation. This allows him to constantly engage the audience in creative dialogue,
while also injecting his own sense of interpretation.

He graduated in Economics at Loyola College and went on to become a qualified Chartered
Accountancy. He was the CEO of a prominent private equity company and worked with
several MNCs around the world. He was also ranked as one of the top 100 CEO’s in Oman
Economic Review in 2016. He was earlier the Director of Corporate Finance at KPMG. Most of his
working experience has been in management / private equity / corporate finance over the past twenty
years.

He is:

Member of The Chennai Angels (http://www.thechennaiangels.com/)
Charter Member of TiE Chennai. (https://chennai.tie.org/)
Fellow at the Institute of Directors (https://www.iod.com/)
Member at The Madras Management Association (http://www.mmachennai.org/)
Member of the Board of Advisors of CIIC – Crescent Innovation & Incubation Council (https://crescent.education/crescent-incubation-innovation-council/about-ciic/)
Volunteer at NGO for children with HIV AIDS Prathyasha – (https://www.prathyasha.in/)
Advisor to a prominent social enterprise for children with learning difficulty – Blink 3R Labs (https://3rlab.in/)

He says, “I am intrigued by meaningful subjects. Excited to change things, not for mere
experimentation but to explore and convey a greater meaning. Each work of art I produce is a
long and very deliberate process; it is not driven by an artificial deadline or by randomness. It
is controlled but free. I believe it is all about taking your inner consciousness and letting it
speak. While I work with paint the process is very sculptural. My work goes through several
stages and I give it long breaks so that I can prepare for the next stage often taking
photographs and altering the images to achieve the outcomes. There is abundant intervention
and layering and it is not dependent on chance.”

Traditional with a modern bent, Reji’s works span a broad spectrum of varied themes and
subjects. From portraits to landscapes to abstracts, he has attempted it all. His work is
globally influenced, culturally diverse, and challenges traditional boundaries.

Reji describes his choice to work on landscapes as wanting to replicate or represent their
apparent beauty, create these depictions to explore, and study various aesthetic elements,
such as light, color, and texture, and use the beauty of nature as way to conceptualize a
metaphor, or simply illustrate an idea.

He says, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Thus, nature
is ubiquitous, and it inevitably becomes Reji’s classroom. Constantly endeavouring to push
the artistic boundaries, he has immersed himself in this immense, vast inspirational space and
is tirelessly and continuously absorbing, learning, and projecting ideas on canvas. Enamoured
by the splendour of nature, even his abstracts often represent nature in all its glory.

He has not been formally trained in arts by considers himself to be a student of most of the
masters. He has been influenced by the renowned artists like Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne,
Modigliani, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Hussain, and Yuri Yamashita, apart from the tutors
in school and many of his artist friends. He is a big fan of several of South Indian artists and
is amazed by such a repository of talent. He has diligently observed their techniques and
styles, which have inspired and drawn him to the way they expressed their creative genius.
He believes it is important to be open minded in the any creative processes and remove any
boundaries and often break the rules, not deliberately but allow it to happen as though there
cannot be any repercussions with only adventure and excitement.

Though the result may be seemingly simple, it sometimes takes a complex and most
complicated process to achieve this simplification. Reji uses the process of elimination,
distraction, segregation, and isolation to achieve the outcomes for his work, which he calls
“at times shifting or stripping of reality to represent an idea”.

Of his working style Reji says, “Sometimes when I am struck by a concept or idea I get
consumed by the creative process and constantly work with whatever came to my head till
the idea is clear enough to be manifested into an art work. The idea keeps me preoccupied till
the concept finally emerges. I am guilty of drawing far too many sketches, taking far too
many pictures, and printouts to work on my ideas till the concept take a final shape. I have to
plunge deep into my sub consciousness to provoke my creativity.”

In his spare time, he also enjoys golf, cycling, scuba diving, martial arts and photography.

Contact detail:
WEB: www.reji7000.com

Facebook: @reji7000

Email: reji7000@gmail.com

Voice: +91 95000 70548

Insta: _reji7000