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Short Bio:
Vikram Madan grew up in India where he really wanted to be a cartoonist, but ended up an engineer. After many years of working in the tech industry, he finally came to his senses and followed his heart into the visual and literary arts, creating work that can be humorous, quirky, fun, lighthearted, philosophical, thought-provoking and, sometimes, all of these at the same time. When not painting and making public art, Vikram writes and illustrates humorous poetry. His poetry books, 'The Bubble Collector' and 'Lord of the Bubbles', both won Moonbeam Book Awards for Children's Poetry. A third collection 'A Hatful of Dragons: And 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems' releases March 2020. Artist Statement: My whimsical invented-narrative paintings are not about beginnings or endings, but rather the middle, the part where the journey is still unfolding, where the adventure is still taking place, where possibilities lie dormant, waiting for an observer, the viewer, to come use their imagination to collapse probabilities into reality (somewhat like Schrodinger's Cat)! Through my work I hope to remind viewers that art can be fun and, in doing so, rekindle some of our lost sense of innocence. |
 'Self-Portrait with Vandal' - Acrylic & Charcoal, 24"x18"
TMI Artist Back-Story:
Vikram Madan was born and raised in India where, despite developing an early love for humor, poetry, art, and cartooning, he ended up becoming (surprise!) an engineer. Arriving in the US for graduate studies, Vikram found himself contributing editorial cartoons to a daily newspaper, which work won him numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Washington Press Association and others, and led to inclusion in the prestigious 'Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year' annual collection. Over the years, Vikram's poetry, cartoons and illustrations have appeared sporadically in various publications. In 2011, Vikram's short humorous film 'The Three Little Space Pigs' was a winner in the Seattle Times 3-Minute Movie contest and was screened at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival. Vikram spent many years working in the Seattle-area hi-tech industry trying to ignore his callings - until one day he realized he was losing himself and really needed to make a leap of faith and trade in his keyboard for a paintbrush and a quill. Vikram quit his job, enrolled in some part time art classes, and eventually joined a full-time drawing and painting program at Seattle's Gage Academy of Art, using the next two hears to hone his skills (and figure out what he was doing). In 2014 Vikram completed the ArtistTrust EDGE Professional Development Program for Visual Artists and has been working as a full-time professional artist ever since. In 2016, Vikram received an Individual Artist Grant from 4Culture. In 2013, Vikram published his first book, a self-illustrated collection of humorous poetry titled 'The Bubble Collector: Poems & Drawings by Vikram Madan', which is repeatedly compared to the work of Shel Silverstein, won a 2013 Moonbeam Children's Book Award for Poetry, was described by one blog as "The BEST Poetry book of 2013", and has been nominated, by invitation, for the 2014 Washington State Book Awards. Vikram's second poetry collection 'Lord of the Bubbles: And Other Funny Poems' was released in Nov. 2018 and won the 2019 Moonbeam Bronze Award for Children's Poetry. A third collection 'A Hatful of Dragons: And More Than 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems' will be released in 2020 by Boyds Mills & Kane. Vikram has also authored two early reader books for kids which will be published by Penguin Random-House in 2021. Vikram currently displays his contemporary whimsical art in local shows and galleries all around the Seattle area and enjoys sharing his love for humor, poetry and drawing with kids of all ages by conducting in-person and Skype school visits. He has several Art Books now available from Amazon.Com. He is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is represented by Stimola Literary Studio. At the end of it all, Vikram hopes to create visual and literary art that explores the human condition without taking itself too seriously, that invites audiences to rekindle a lost sense of innocence, and that helps make the world a better place one shared moment of levity at a time. Press: * 2014: Read a profile of Vikram's journey here in this 2014 front-page article in the Redmond Reporter. *2017: Listen to a radio interview on ArtBeat NW from 2017 * 2017: Watch a TV interview on Kent TV from 2017 *2019: Cover feature in Seattle's Real Change weekly paper |
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Photo Credit: Jahnvi Madan
Photo by Samantha Pak, Redmond Reporter
"I Paint, Therefore I Am" - Self Portrait of the Artist as a Work-in-progress.
Unless otherwise noted, all images and text on this website are copyright Vikram Madan. Please do not reproduce without permission.