FIVE arresting new works dripping with red have just been installed in the National Gallery of Australia’s downstairs Asian Galleries.

Four of the five large-scale ceramic sculptures, “Mud men” were commissioned specifically for the NGA from Sydney ceramic artist Ramesh Nithiyendran and sit alongside the fifth, “Self-portrait with third leg 2” 2016.  The tallest measures five metres.

All the works were produced during an artist-in-residence program at the National Art School in Sydney.

“CityNews” caught up this morning with the voluble Nithiyendran, who  graduated from the University of New South Wale’s College of Fine Arts in 2013 and  won the Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award last year

“This installation is my most ambitious project to date. The works are of unprecedented scale and materiality, incorporating cement, concrete, sea shells, human hair, teeth, beads, cardboard, polystyrene, rubber snakes and other materials,” he says.

Born in Sri Lanka, Nithiyendran emigrated to Australia at age 1, and  shows all the refreshing confidence of a thoughtful Aussie artist who know just how to make his mark and how to talk about it.

Some of the large idol-like figures are set on cement plinths inscribed with urban tagging, in a nod to the ‘Brutalist’ architecture of the gallery and some are set on fake cardboard plinths. Some figures are adorned with “Indian human hair,” human elements creating what Nithiyendran calls a “discourse around exoticism” and with lurid enamel, a clear indication that he was trained not as a ceramicist, but as a painter. Other materials making an unexpected appearance in the works include the polystyrene and teeth.

All the figures are deities, but as a non-believer commenting on the Hindu and Christian religions, he believes they are more properly considered “figurative monuments.”

The space in the Asia gallery, he  says, is “the perfect context from a formal perspective,” with the blue-greys of the minimal space (sometimes with a touch of pink) setting off the reds that he considers “ appealing to the eye” bringing “lifeblood to things.”

Nithiyendran pointed out there were “lots of holes in the bodies,” which he had deliberately made ‘porous’ in a gender-bending gesture that gets the viewer wondering.

Jaklyn Babington, senior curator of Global Contemporary Art Practice, noting the recurring use of the phallus that provokes discussion around sex, gender, religion and colonialism, says, “Ramesh’s installation for the NGA is outrageous in all of the right ways.”

Once the installation comes down on January 29, the gallery will decide which of the works are to be acquired for the permanent Asian collection.

“Mud men” will be on display from this weekend until January 29 at the National Gallery of Australia. Nithiyendran will give a free public talk on Saturday July 30 at 2pm. Free but bookings essential to nga.gov.au