Dare to find radical empathy for the people around you - Murugiah
5/10/202657 min
Murugiah returns to Daring Creativity for a conversation that feels like watching someone step fully into who they were always meant to be.
A multidisciplinary artist trained in architecture, living and working in London, Murugiah has spent the years since his last appearance developing a deeply personal body of work — acrylic paintings that fuse his digital aesthetic with a new emotional rawness, rooted in his Sri Lankan heritage and shaped by a decade of intentional craft. ~
One email to the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration led, against all expectations, to an invitation to open the entire centre with his debut solo exhibition.
This is a conversation about patience, pursuit and the quiet power of just doing the work — without waiting for permission, without chasing the outcome, and without needing the world to show up before you get started.
Key takeaways:
- Creating your own opportunity is not a strategy — it's a mindset. One email sent from a place of genuine excitement changed the entire trajectory of Murugiah's career
- Emotional heft takes time. The years spent developing a visual aesthetic were necessary before the personal, introspective work could emerge
- Following the fun keeps you present. When imposter syndrome strips you of the now, curiosity and play bring you back
- Tactility is a response, not nostalgia. Moving into acrylic painting was a deliberate turn towards what AI cannot replicate — intuitive, human, physical decision-making
- The journey is the reward. The hours at the table, the meetings, the exchanges — those are what you carry. The response to the work is secondary
- Radical empathy fuels introspection. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes — even a bus driver's — creates the internal awareness that feeds deeply personal work
- A debut doesn't need to come early to matter. Coming to it at 38, with a full life behind him, made Murugiah's show richer and more resonant than speed could ever have allowed
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMurugiah· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] I've had this opportunity in the new exhibition to explore some sculptural works. Now I'm thinking, like, follow the fun. I had a lot of fun on these sculptural works. Paintings are a joy to make. They've just... They've become part of what I do, so I can just keep doing them now. What can I add on top? And it's not about growing in that ego way. It's more fun to me to explore things three-dimensionally next. You're turning these... Slowly and slowly, these characters are coming from the 2D digital screen into a more tactile, painterly way, into a more three-dimensional way. What happens next is clearly there's animation, there's 3D animation, there's live action film. Eventually, I will become a filmmaker. This is what you wanna hear out of... At some point I will make a live action film. Who knows? We'll see.
Radim Malinic· Host0:59
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Daring Creativity Podcast, a show about daring to forever explore creativity that isn't about chasing shiny perfection. It's about showing up with all your doubts and imperfections and making them count. It's about becoming more of who you already are. My name is Radim Malinic. I'm a designer, author, and eternally curious human being.