Ever Feel Like...

“When I sit down to paint, everything else disappears – the noise, anxiety, the rest of the world – it’s almost a meditative process.”

In his paintings and sculptures, illustrator MURUGIAH reflects on his identity. His flower-, elephant- and skull-headed figures pause, hide and dance. Their forms reflect MURUGIAH’s earliest influences: 1990s Nintendo and Saturday morning cartoons, 2000s pop punk, and Sri Lankan art and design.

MURUGIAH’s characters replay his formative experiences growing up in South Wales in his Sri Lankan family. Through visual metaphor, MURUGIAH explores feelings of disconnection from his heritage, overwhelm, rejection and a sense of looking in on life from the outside.

These recent works are deeply personal, but through them, MURUGIAH invites us to think about our own experiences. He asks, “Ever feel like this?”