Hi, I’m Anjali Muntha, a self-taught ceramic practitioner from Mysore. I began working with clay at the age of 22, developing a sustained practice in handbuilt ceramics, illustration, and sculpture. My work is distinguished by whimsical, imaginative imagery that initially appears playful and childlike, but on closer inspection reveals darker narratives. Using underglaze illustration as a storytelling device, I create surreal worlds where humour and unease coexist.

Artist Statement : My practice explores grief, memory, satire, and the surreal through handbuilt ceramics and underglaze illustration. I construct imagined worlds inhabited by whimsical figures and improbable narratives that appear playful at first glance, but gradually reveal darker emotional and psychological undercurrents. Humour has always been a way for me to navigate loss and difficult experiences, and it naturally became the language through which I make sense of the world. Rather than confronting grief with solemnity, I approach it through wit, absurdity, and imagination.

My visual language is rooted in a childlike mode of illustration – colourful, simple, and deceptively familiar. Looking back, I see my visual language as echoing the perspective from which I first experienced loss, preserving a way of seeing the world that feels both innocent and deeply reflective. While the subjects I explore can be unsettling, I intentionally soften them through whimsical imagery and humour, inviting viewers to engage with difficult ideas without being overwhelmed by them. The contrast between innocence and darkness creates space for contemplation, allowing humour and discomfort to exist side by side.

I am drawn to ceramics for its ability to exist simultaneously as image, object and vessel. It offers a narrative surface while remaining a tactile, functional form that invites physical interaction. Through clay, I create imagined worlds where grief becomes strange, satire becomes playful, and the familiar is quietly transformed into something uncanny.