Style : His artistic devices are drawn from a range of sources, such as Kalighat paintings and ancient philosophical texts. Of course, his concerns are very much contemporary like the impact of globalization leading to economic marginalization and cultural degradation.
His photo realistic works draw from images related to contemporary Indian life, building complex puzzles and weaving together myriad experiences and influences as imbibed by the artist. The motifs in his paintings are rather complex.
According to his “I primarily work on Paper and Canvas. My chosen mediums of expression are Watercolour, Gouache, Acrylic and Oil paints. I am also engaged in photography, filmmaking, sculpture and installations.”
Conceptually, the immediacy of the drawn image alongside elaboration of the painted surface; balance the overall process of image making with anecdotes and mystery motifs. The interlocking of juxtaposed drawings with the painted surface steadily blurs the certainty of the known from the unknown. An altered sense of reality emerges. The human psyche perceives to the extent of what it may see and beyond that spectrum is the unknown, which is an anxious state of being. The notion of the self within a contained form is bound by the limits of time and to embrace its fleeting nature is a challenge. We are able to justify the presence of reality by assigning identities to it and a strong sense of the self is built around them. From within the illusions of a complex network, we are often reminded that life is fleeting. The surplus and grandeur of modern culture shifts your attention to make-believe realities where the nature of the self is packaged in everlasting youthfulness and happy living.
About the Artist & his works :
Born : 1973 in New Delhi.
Education :
2001 : Completed MFA from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Scotland, UK.
2000 : MFA from the College of Art, New Delhi, India
1998 : BFA from the Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.
Solo Exhibitions :
2011 : “Dialectica”, Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata, India
2008 : “Elastic Dreams”, Pundole Art Gallery & Arushi Arts, Kitab Mahal, Mumbai, India
2007 : “Equinox Shift”, Gallery Bose Pacia, Kolkata, India
2006 : “Sign – Sequence”, Watercolor Show, Triveni, Arushi Arts, New Delhi, India,
“Lost in Translation”, Gallery Nature Morte & the Swiss Embassy, New Delhi, India
2004 : “Imagined Metaphors”, Triveni Gallery, New Delhi, India
1999 : “Constructions in Space”, Gallery Art India Style, New Delhi, India.
Group Show :
2011 : “Take 2”, The Gallery Mall, Arushi Arts, New Delhi & “Indiske billeder”, Birkerød Kunstforening, Denmark.
2010 : “Picture Wallah”, Secher Scott Scandinavian Auction and Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Harvest Show & “India. Travel Notes”, Babusch, Berlin, Germany
2009 : “Who We Are”, Sunjin Galleries, Singapore & Harvest Show, “Ctrl+Alt+Del”, Stainless Gallery, Arushi Arts, India
2008 : “The Sun Rises In The East”, Galerie Christian Hosp, Austria & “Beyond Boundaries”, Gallery in 28 Cork St., Arushi Arts, London, UK
2006 : “A Compensation for What has been Lost”, Art Concerns,
Travancore House, New Delhi, India & “The Indian Art Show”, Arushi Arts, Nehru Centre, London, UK
2005 : “TUCHE”, Gallery Kaleidoscope, Vadodara, India & “Art Waves”, Gallery Art Mosaic, Singapore
2004 : “Singular IdentityS”, Visual Arts Gallery, IHC, New Delhi, India & 47th. National Exhibition of Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India
1998 : 41st. National Exhibition of Art, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India
Awards :
2010 : Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, USA & Travel Grant – Danish Centre for Culture and Development,Denmark
2000 : Commonwealth Scholarship, UK & M.F. Hussain Award, College of Art, New Delhi, India
1999 : The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Canada
1996 : The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Canada National Scholarship, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi, India.
