Veru Narula

Why is Veru an artist?

I paint to explore the power of hands, the shadows of the ego, and the beauty of the mind, in order to reveal the light of a universal soul.” – Veru Narula.

Artist Exhibition History

Celebrating 25+ Year Contemporary Art Career

Mr. Veru’s artistic background is impressive, with degrees from Columbia University and the School of Visual Arts. His work has been exhibited in numerous prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Miami Art Basel, the United Nations, Smithsonian Museum of Art, Miami Art Basel, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Versace Mansion, the Queens Museum of Art, the India Habitat Center and many international galleries and institutions. On February 22, 2024, Veru’s Art was sent on a Space X rocket to the Moon!

Mr. Veru's Art is on the Moon!

Learn about Lunarprise Art curation sent on SpaceX rocket to the south side of the Moon!

Upcoming Documentary Preview: 'Upfifting Truth'

Journey with Mr. Veru on navigating his artistic curiosities, bipolar condition and spiritual identity.

Artist Statement

I am both a third generation oil painter and a third generation engineer. My work grows from a lifelong fascination with how the human eye responds differently to pigment and pixels, and how these two visual languages can coexist without one diminishing the other.
My practice bridges centuries old oil painting traditions with contemporary technologies such as video, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. I followed my family heritage of oil painting with my first work ‘Refulgence’ at age seventeen in 1998 and worked on art series in themes as if they were music albums. Since 2010, I have embedded moving images directly into oil paintings, treating the painted surface as both narrative and interface. Over time, my work has explored themes ranging from space exploration and relationship dynamics to symbolic cultural dialogues and imagined conversations, often using motion and repetition to allow meaning to evolve. In recent years, particularly following shifts in the digital art landscape after 2022, I began more deeply integrating AI driven imagery and augmented reality into my paintings. Water and oceanic forms recur throughout my work as metaphors for flow, memory, reflection, and abundance. These paintings act as visual anchors while layered digital narratives unfold differently for each viewer.
At the core of my practice is perception. Across cultures and throughout history, pigment has served as one of humanity’s earliest tools for memory, myth, and meaning. In my work, the painting remains constant while the digital layer becomes adaptive. Two people standing in front of the same painting may encounter different animated interpretations based on subtle cues such as movement, proximity, or visual data. The aim is not to replace the physical artwork, but to deepen engagement and invite personal meaning.
The rhythm of the universe, of nature, and of history informs my creative process. I am drawn to cycles of divergence and convergence, repetition and transformation, and the idea that everything originates from a shared source. This understanding shapes how I approach unity, complexity, and belonging.
The hands are central to my visual language. They form the link between mind and eye, past and future. As the child of two painters and the parent of a daughter who creates alongside me, my hands carry lineage forward. Through painting, I express love, identity, relationships, faith, and freedom, while honoring both individual expression and collective connection. Ultimately, my work seeks to amplify the experience of the human eye, hand, mind, and soul, using technology as a collaborator to expand storytelling, accessibility, and shared reflection.

Artist Statement

The cyclic rhythm of the universe, of nature, of history informs my work and drives my creativity. I derive my sense of home and community from this understanding that, everything that once was and everything that will be, all stems from the same source; it diverges and then converges, and then repeats itself. It’s The Big Bang Theory. It’s scientific; it’s philosophic. It’s a sense of unity and synchronicity amidst chaos that emerges through my lens of humanity and nature and onto the canvas.

The hands form the link between the mind and the eyes. The hands are the storytellers; they are the conduit from the past to the present to the future.
I create and paint in order to express myself — to express my love, my relationships, my values, my views, and my identity. The works are the result of an interest in visual and gestural narrative with the hands being a particularly poignant signifier. The hands form the link between the mind and the eyes. The hands are the storytellers; they are the conduit from the past to the present to the future. As a corporeal symbol of my relationship to my parents and my child, my hands carry on a lineage of artistic expression. My father and mother are both painters in their own right, and I channel their influences into my work, informing my daughter of her heritage. I try to produce works that express a desire for freedom of expression, existence, and faith. I view individualistic freedom as the preservation of community through mutual understanding and respect. These philosophies are expressed through my work, and hopefully will inform and encourage viewers and future generations to feel my hope to collectively create a safely united home for the universal soul.

To that effect, my art is personal, with a balance of global and universal sensibilities. It binds together global concerns with those more insular, local and familiar. It is an incubating ground for love and oneness, while exploring disparities. It’s with this in mind that I am interested in combining shared narratives with global events, with personal experiences, and with varied world traditions to create a unified language that speaks to all global citizens in a comprehensible vernacular, that includes everyone in conversation with equal respect and understanding. This involves exploring and broaching complex topics, asking challenging questions, and developing a forum to initiate thought and dialogues that are inclusive and free from social and societal confines. This extends to my technique. This means respecting and preserving the traditions of oil painting, while incorporating mixed and digital media in various formats; it means integrating the figurative and the abstract; it means creating a space where the old, the new, and the developing each has a space to interact equally and contribute freely.

Exhibitions

Veru Narula has been included in exhibitions and curations at prestigious museums & galleries in both the US and internationally including the Smithsonian Museum of Art, Miami Art Basel, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Versace Mansion, the Queens Museum of Art, the India Habitat Center, and more.

Veru's Journey to Uplifting Truth

The New York Times Has sometime to say about Veru....

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