My multidisciplinary neo-conceptual art explores reality’s cycles and interconnectedness, using everyday objects, digital tools, and paint, inspired by science and philosophy.
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suresh babu maddilety
Hyderabad, India
Biography
Suresh Babu Maddilety (b. 1971, Andhra Pradesh, India) is a multidisciplinary artist blending science and philosophy into neo-conceptual art. Using video, digital media, painting, text, photography, and everyday objects, he showcases how materials are portals to immaterial realities.
Maddilety’s art is a continuous dialogue, flowing naturally or shaped by external forces, inviting endless exploration. Internationally recognized, he was a finalist in Ars Electronica (2021), the Art Slant Prize (2018), and the Arte Laguna Prize (2015), with exhibitions in India and worldwide. He earned his BFA and MFA in Hyderabad (1998), where he remains based.
Rooted in South Indian thought and his Telugu heritage, he draws from a local riddle: ‘నేను అందరినీ మించిపోయా కానీ ఎవరూ నన్ను మించలేరు’(‘I surpass everyone, but no one surpasses me’). It reflects timelessness and cyclical flow—core ideas in his practices that explore transformation, matter, and continuity within a broader cosmological context. Maddiley’s work resonates universally.
Artist Statement
I am a visual artist with an interdisciplinary spirit. Drawing inspiration from my Telugu roots, I reflect on a riddle—“నేను అందరినీ మించిపోతాను కానీ ఎవరూ నన్ను మించలేరు?” (“I surpass everyone, but no one surpasses me”)—which speaks to timelessness and mirrors the eternal flow in my work.
This idea aligns with Roger Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC), is a theory that proposes the universe doesn’t begin with a single Big Bang but undergoes endless cycles. Each cycle ends with the universe expanding and thinning out, and then a new Big Bang initiates the next cycle. In this view, the universe endlessly dies and is reborn; my aim is fixed on the infinite universes yet to emerge.
I position my work within this cosmic cycle—some evolve naturally, while others ignite from imagined connections with beings in other universes, driving endless exploration and transformation.
I merge science and philosophy into neo-conceptual art through video, digital media, painting, text, photography, and everyday objects. My practice probes reality through inner cycles of existence, where a connection is a direct link between two points, and interconnectedness forms a looping network of many such links that shape the world around us. These patterns, spanning from the tiniest particles to the grandest cosmic scales, are a metaphor for my work.
The water cycle—evaporation and rain—parallels Penrose’s CCC: every ending starts anew. Interconnected forces, like solar energy and ocean currents, transform water into clouds, just as a dying universe creates space for renewal. Individual acts of connection—like falling rain or creating art—expand these systems. I shape connections into physical forms inspired by the world around us and developing interconnections as layered concepts shaped by imagined futures.
I see science and philosophy as an interconnected network of knowledge, where I begin shaping ideas into connections. My process is a puzzle, seeking links between diverse concepts and materials. Inspired by nature’s chaos and order, I even see materials as part of an interconnected network. My work, however intricate, serves as a conceptual draft for possible futures. Each work is a seed of endless transformation. This process redefines existence, space, materiality, culture, and scales of nature and evolution.
My art never ends; it evolves, inviting connections and showing how small acts can shape universes.
Artwork Descriptions
1. Social Liquids
2. Universe Constructivism
3. Microscopicism
4. Pronouncism
5. Found the Space for Art
6. Man-made objective art
1. Social Liquids
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: social liquid 01, medium: video, year: 2014.
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: socail liquid 2, medium: video, year:2022.
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: social liquid 3, medium: video, year: 2015.
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: icmfspbpce, medium: video, year:2022.
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: mjphcopcftcb, medium;video, year:2017.
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: 6edsncfetgfsmpmh, medium: video, year:2019.
Social Liquids is an ongoing video art series comprising 11 works created between 2015 and 2025, each around 10+ minutes long and available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SureshBabu-tt2fg. In this series, I explore how combining diverse substances—ranging from municipal water to dog feces—creates new materials, capturing spontaneous interactions with these elements in each video.
This process is inspired by scientific methods—mixing elements to discover new forms—while also drawing from my cultural background and personal experiences. My father, a signboard painter, often blended raw materials to meet practical needs, and this early exposure shaped my approach to experimentation.
Social Liquids invites viewers to consider the overlooked potential of everyday or discarded substances. It challenges conventional ideas of what materials are worthy of artistic use, encouraging a rethinking of how new forms and meanings can emerge through unconventional combinations. The work challenges cultural perceptions of purity, value, and what is considered socially acceptable. In this way, it becomes a meditation on the fluidity of existence and the limitless possibilities of creation.
2. Universe Constructivism
Universe Constructivism (2023), transforms NASA galaxy photos into new visual narratives using digital collage through Adobe Photoshop. The series features pieces like Universe Constructivism 01, depicting a house, and Universe Constructivism 02, showcasing a mountain and lake landscape, crafted from galaxy images.
Inspired by the Land Art Movement of the 1960s—where artists worked directly with natural landscapes using materials like soil, rocks, and plants—I reinterpret this approach by using digital fragments of galaxies as my medium. Maddilety arranges galaxies as his building blocks, creating intricate, cosmic compositions. His work envisions a Galaxy Art Movement where artists use galaxies instead of land, pushing creative boundaries into the cosmos. These artworks evoke cosmic grandeur, inviting viewers to marvel at the universe’s splendor and contemplate future scientific and artistic possibilities. Maddilety’s meticulous process, involving mining and arranging galaxy images, reflects the laborious nature of shaping landscapes, showcasing his dedication and the intricate details of his creations.
3. Microscopicism
Microscopicism is a research-based conceptual project. The starting point was how to conceive a traditional still-life study within the microscopic world of an actual atom, challenging stereotypical connections between reality and tangibility.
Microscopicism explores the unseen material world around us. Scientists deal with these media to understand how our universe, ecosystems, and bodies function. Maddilety approaches the same topic, but his departure point is the visual representation of microscopic objects, allowing us to view and manipulate these elements for art with the naked eye. While scientists must be pragmatic and maintain a rigid systematic procedure, he allows himself to employ a more creative and insightful process to examine similar hypotheses.
Microscopicism describes the most minute qualities in the universe that make processes, like photosynthesis and cell cycles, visible to the naked eye. It is the hope that, in the future, artists will be able to visualize these phenomena for everyone to see in plain view.
4. Pronouncism
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title: Pronouncism 01- 01 medium: video year; 2023
Pronouncism is a video artwork that combines audio, video, and text elements. In the video, we hear an AI software’s voice pronouncing made-up words typed by the artist. Using the Telugu alphabet, native to Andhra Pradesh in South India and Maddilety’s mother tongue, the artist randomly typed letters in translation.Google app, allowing the software to vocalise them and record screen capture software. The resulting words are absurd.
Pronouncism opens up a discussion on our unique routes of thought and how we use our languages, challenging the significance of pronunciation and questioning the meaning we assign to specific sounds and words. Inspired by text art, Maddilety explores the concept of using linguistic elements, asking why we use words from language in text art but not the pronouns from abstract words.
5. Found the Space for Art
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artist: Suresh Babu Maddilety, title: art in the moon, Medium: video, Year: 2024.
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artist: Suresh babu maddilety, title: art in the sun, medium:video, year:2024
“Art in the Moon” and “Art in the Sun” are video artworks created using Windows 3D software, and I use screen capture software to record live digital drawings, allowing me to create movement as I envision it. These recordings are then edited and compiled into video works, documenting both the process and transformation of the piece, part of the series “Found the Space for Art.” This series explores the concept of creating art within found objects, such as rocks, mountains, the Sun, the Galaxy, or even the human body. In this video, the Moon and the sun serve as the backdrop. Maddilety embeds art within physical matter, and unexpected places like mountains, celestial objects, as a form of artists’ experimentation. The drawing itself is not significant; rather, it is the exploration and potential of these new spaces that matter.
Inspired by the idea of an empty canvas, Madilety visualizes new spaces for artistic experimentation, questioning, and challenging traditional surfaces and visual representation processes. He questions the conventional use of surfaces like canvas, likening his approach to graffiti artists who seek unexpected locations. However, Madilety goes further by proposing experimental and innovative techniques to embed his art within found objects. His work takes viewers on a journey through his interest in the future, philosophy, and science.
6. Man-made objective art
wine bottle
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2023.___________ In the Man-made Objective Art universe, the wine bottle acts like an atom—its wine drops falling like atomic particles. These wine drops spark the growth of a grape tree without connection, in contrast to our world where trees grow from seeds. Each wine drop serves as an independent catalyst for transformation, which is why the wine bottle is depicted in isolation.
from cement
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2022_____________In this concept, cement is reversed as the origin of the tree. The tree behaves like cement, solid and structured, defying natural processes. This reimagining reflects the idea that trees, traditionally born from soil, can instead emerge from an unnatural, solid foundation. The tree's behavior mirrors the rigidity of cement, blending the organic and the constructed in a continuous cycle of transformation.
chair
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2024_______________ In this conceptual universe, the color of the tree originates from the chair, with the trees' coloration behaving like the chair itself. However, since this transformation takes place without direct connection, the trees are not visible. This is why the chair is depicted in isolation, representing the source of the trees' color.
from pollution
size: 20x20inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2023___________In this concept, pollution is reversed as the origin of the flower. Just as a flower grows from the earth, the flower emerges from the byproducts of pollution. This idea transforms the concept of environmental decay into one of rebirth and creation. By reversing natural processes, pollution becomes the seed from which new life, symbolized by the flower, originates.
from makeup
size:25x25inches-medium:acrylic colors yaer:2023____________In the "Man-made Objective Art" concept, makeup is reversed as the origin of the woman. Just as a seed gives birth to a tree, makeup acts as the starting point, from which the woman emerges. This concept mirrors the idea of a unicellular organism giving rise to a complex form of life. By reversing natural processes, makeup becomes the fundamental element.
from the cable
size:20x20 inches medium: acrylic colors year: 2024___________In this concept, the cable is reversed as the origin of birds, even the sky itself. From the cable, birds emerge, shaping the sky around them. The birds' forms and expressions echo the structure of the cable, blending the artificial with the natural. By reversing natural processes, the cable becomes the source from which life and its surroundings take flight.
bullock cart
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2023_________In this conceptual reversal, the cow originates from the cart. The cow adopts cart-like qualities, and even its surroundings echo the character of the cart.
flower vase
size: 28x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2024_________From the flower vase, plants originate. From the tap, water emerges. From the boat, trees, mountains, and even the sun take form. The surrounding environment behaves like a fusion of various man-made objects. This is a reverse interplay, where creation follows an inverted process.
new suns
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2024____________From a matchstick, suns originate—along with plants and trees. The surroundings take on the essence of a matchstick, though they remain unseen, existing only in the imagination. Here, multiple suns emerge, reversing the natural order and reshaping perception.
from the camara
size:24x24inches-medium: acrylic-colors year:2024__________________In this concept, the camera is reversed as the origin of the landscape. From the lens, mountains, trees, and ponds emerge, creating a vivid natural scene. Just as a camera captures the world, it is reimagined as the source of nature itself. By reversing natural processes, the camera becomes the starting point from which landscapes are formed.
replace with new mountains
size:25x25 medima: acrylic-colors-year:2025_____________If something breaks, we replace it with something new. Similarly, I removed the old mountains and replaced them with new ones, even creating a new atmosphere by removing the old one.
table
size:22x22 medium:acrylic colors year:2024____________In this concept, the table is reversed as the origin of tree trunks, even the earth itself. From the surface of the table, tree trunks rise and the earth is formed, symbolizing a reimagined natural order. Just as a table is a man-made object, it becomes the foundation for the growth of nature. By reversing natural processes, the table becomes the seed from which the natural world emerges.
to be assembled
siz: 25x25inches medium: acrylic colors year:2025___________In our world, making a table involves separately creating and assembling its parts. In the "Man-made objective art" universe, the table is the fundamental unit, and trees grow metaphorically from it, without the natural order of stems, branches, and leaves. Here, creating a real tree means assembling parts in a nonlinear fashion, like constructing a table.
umbarilla
size"25x25inches-medim: acrylic colors year:2024________________In the "Man-made objective art" universe, the umbrella fundamental unit generates clouds and rain, unlike in our world, where atmospheric changes drive these phenomena. Here, the umbrella acts like atoms, forming clouds and rain without direct interaction, which is why it’s depicted in isolation.
walls
size:20x20inches medium:acrylic colors year:2023___________Everything originates from compound walls—trees, flowers, earth, air, and even the atmosphere. The atmosphere itself takes on the form and essence of compound walls, blurring the line between the natural and the constructed.
electric-poles
size:25x25 medium:acrylic colors year:2025______________In this concept, electric poles are reversed as the origin of the entire environment. From the poles emerge land, mountains, water, plants, trees, flowers, air, and even the sky, forming the whole atmosphere. The environment itself behaves like electric poles, though it remains unseen, existing only in the imagination. By reversing natural processes, the poles become the source from which all elements of life and nature originate, reshaping perception and creation.
the sun is landing
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2023____________The sun serves as a metaphor for an airplane. Here, the sun originates from an airplane and takes on its behavior—moving, flying, and landing. Even the surroundings adopt the qualities of an airplane, with the air itself moving like an aircraft. However, these transformations remain unseen, existing only in the realm of imagination, evoking a metaphysical experience.
bus
medium:Acrylic on Canvas size:25x25inc year:2025____________From the bus’s windows, the sky and trees originate, extending even to the surroundings. The isolated bus also gives birth to humans from its seats, yet this occurs without direct connection—beyond the painting itself. Here, the painting is not confined within the frame; it expands into universal space, evoking a metaphysical experience.
objective rain
size: 25x25 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2025___________Rain originates from an umbrella, which exists beyond the painting in its original horizontal position. The rain itself also falls horizontally. The surroundings take on the qualities of an umbrella, yet this transformation is a metaphysical experience, extending beyond the visible.
wine bottle and glass
medium:Acrylic on Canvas size:20x19inc year:2025___________In this concept, the wine bottle and glass function like atoms, while the wine itself represents the electron. Unlike in traditional atomic structures where electrons orbit the proton, here the roles are reversed—the proton moves around the electrons. This inversion highlights a unique set of physical laws, reimagining fundamental interactions in a new reality.
ponds
medium:Acrylic on Canvas size: 20x19inc year:2024______________In this concept, the boat generates ponds, but the ponds resemble the materials of the boat itself. The surroundings adopt the qualities of a boat, yet this transformation exists beyond the visible realm. It is a metaphysical experience, where form and function reverse, challenging perceptions of origin and materiality.
no one created village
medium: Acrylic on Canvas size: 20x19inc year: 2025_____________In the "Man-made Objective Art" universe, the village takes the place of atoms as the fundamental unit. Unlike our world, where atoms form everything and even exist independently, this village was not created but emerged on its own.
boat river
size: 20x20 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2023_____________In this concept, the boat generates the river, yet the river takes on the form of the boat. The boat exists both within and beyond the painting, extending into an imagined space. This reversal of origin transforms the river into a metaphysical extension of the boat itself.
from brick
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2022_____________A brick generates a tree, with its trunk shaped like a brick wall. The surroundings absorb the essence of the brick, yet this transformation remains unseen, existing as a metaphysical experience beyond the painting.
creating sky
size: 22x22 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2022_______________A ladder generates the sky and space, but there is no land or stars, as it embodies the abstract behavior of the ladder. This unique space, unlike our natural world, is a metaphysical experience.
creating canvas world
size: 24x24 inches-medium: acrylic colors year: 2021____________The canvas painting generates land, sky, water, and atmosphere, shaping reality rather than depicting it. Surroundings take on the essence of the painted forms, extending into a metaphysical experience where creation and perception merge.
Man-made objective art is a series of 30 colourful and bright paintings on square canvases, created between 2019 and 2023. Inspired by the philosophy of “materialism,” where abstract matter is primary, and nature and man-made objects are secondary, Maddilety’s Man-made objective art redefines creations.
If we go in-depth about materialism, the primary matter is built by atoms. Maddilety’s concept of Man-made objective art redefines creation, envisioning man-made objects as fundamental units akin to atoms. In his art, he reverses natural processes, crafting trees from tables and vines from wine drops. These works question function—if a wine glass no longer holds wine, is it still a wine glass? He invites viewers to see everyday objects as sites of transformation. He believes these paintings are like drafts, and in the future, they will be brought to life through quantum technology or nature will bring them to life on its own.
CV
SURESH BABU MADDILETY
Born 1971, Medukurthi, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Lives and works in Hyderabad.
https://artsted.com/profile/portfolio
EDUCATION:
Graduation: 1986-1992; B.F.A J.N.T.U. College of fine arts, Hyderabad.
Post-Graduation: 1996-1998; M.F.A University of Hyderabad.
FINALIST:
NEULAND Gallery video screening in Bochum, 2024-Germany.
U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad on India-US Space Cooperation contest 2024
Special prize winner, Mellow Art Award 2021
For video work in IAR International Artist Residency 2020- Napoli (Italy).
For installation work in YICCA Art contest 2017/2018 – Milan (Italy).
1st 2018 Art Slant Prize juried winner, USA.
For installation work in YICCA Art contest 2017- Rome (Italy).
For installation work in Art Laguna Prize 2015- Venice (Italy).
For installation work in Premio Combat Prize2015- Livorno (Italy).
SELECTED FOR ART FESTIVALS:
Goes:Art, On Screen festival 2024, Vienna, Austria.
The Ars Electronica Festival 2021, Austria.
Festival DeSidera 2021, Italy.
ARTISTS SELECTION FIRST PHASE:
Air Land 3.0 INSIDE LAND organized by the Quasi Quadro association, 2020, Turin (Italy).
AWARDS:
47th All India Art exhibition by the Hyderabad art society, 1988.
ONE MAN SHOW:
On 13th Sep 1998, at C.I.E.F.L, Hyderabad.
GROUP SHOWS:
The Dalí’s Surprisingly Surreal Photo Contest Online Exhibit 2025, The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, USA.
MOTILE ART the 4th International Online Art Exhibition 2024, India.
CISTA ARTS online group show Metamorphosis: Exploring Transformation Through Art, online group show 2024, London.
ICAC art gallery group show, 2022, Ahmedabad, India.
Round Lemon international online show2021- UK
PITCH collective video mapping, 2021- Russia
Finalists Exhibition -YICCA Art contest 2017/18- Milan (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – YICCA Art contest 2017/- Rome (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – Art Laguna Prize 2015 -Venice (Italy).
Finalists Exhibition – Premio Combat Prize 2015- Livorno (Italy).
International Gallery Of The Arts (IGOA). online exhibition 2017.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY:
Artist Residency Programme By Kerala Lalit Kala Academy, 2017, India.
PUBLICATION:
Abirpothi, India’s only daily art newspaper, 09/10/2024, 2024.
Artists of the Month, October 2021, Wendy.network.
Artist profiles, May 1918, ArtSlant.
Wotisart Magazine,12th August 2017.
ART Habens, 1916.
EXHIBITION PARTICIPATION:
J.N.T.U. College of Fine Arts Annual Exhibitions;
1988,1989,1990,1991.
All India Art Exhibitions, The Hyderabad Art Society;1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994.
P.S. Telugu University Exhibition of Art, Hyderabad; 1997.
ARTIST CAMPS: Andhra Pradesh Young Artists Camp by A.P. Govt., 1997,1998,1999,2000