Jayanta Roy (b. 1973, Indian).

E-mail :                       m[email protected].

Education :                  BFA (Sculpture), Government College of Art & Craft, University of Calcutta, 1997.

Group and solo shows : 2012 – Group Exhibition at Gandhara Art Gallery, Kolkata.

                                  2010 – “B-Swarga”(:)  solo show at Nature Morte (New Delhi), Bose Pacia(Kolkata)

                                             and Lakeeren(Mumbai).

                                  2009 – Group show at Nature Morte, New Delhi.

                                  2009 – “Some Ice-bergs Easy to Avoid” at Bose Pacia, New York.

                                  2008 – 3 man show at the Gallery Nature Morte, Delhi.

                                  2008 – “Black & White”,  at Tao Art Gallery.

                                  2007 – “Art addressing violence” , an exhibition at the Somokal Art Gallery.

                                  2007 – An exhibition of paintings “Dynamic stillness” at Gallery Kanishka.

                                  2007- Group show at Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata.

                                  2007 – Group  show at Gallery Nakshatra.

Awards and grants:       2012 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York.

                                  2011 Junior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Statement : Secondhand images filtered through the media now exert a powerful influence on our perception of reality, making reality itself artificial. The distinctions between model and copy, mediated experience and tangible reality are all but blurred. This is where my creative journey begins. Despite painting’s limitations, I employ this medium to tell the story of such ambiguous and multi-layered contemporary life. My art is more an intellectual practice than an instinctive one, where texts and puns have vital roles.

Bengali culture is known for its verbosity, cynicism and criticizing tendency. Loggerhead with one another, people cuddle in street corners, cafes and public transports. I pick up tidbits of their chitchat and recycle them through allegories, satire and wit. Such local experiences are important to me. I deliberately leave my canvases white or off-white, so that the objecthood of the canvas is apparent. I build on the legacies of pop, minimalism and conceptual art in a postcolonial, globalizing milieu, where “truth” and “reality” are not as truthful and real as they may seem.