Emami Art at INDIA ART FAIR, 2024
Date: 1-4 FEBRUARY 2024
Venue: NSIC Exhibition Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi, Delhi 110020
1. Special Programme - Five Years of Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) and Emami Art: Supporting Artists, Building Institutions & Promoting Cultural Exchange.
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IAF Studio Booth J05
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Emami Art Booth F03
"It truly feels special this time at India Art Fair's fifteenth edition. We are bringing multiple projects to the fair, including a Group show with some of our artists’ most recent and critical artworks and a Solo Digital Presentation by Janhavi Khemka. Additionally, as a part of IAF’s VIP Program, I will speak about the institutional presence in supporting artists and promoting cultural exchange throughout the past five years of Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) and Emami Art along with my co-panellists, Ushmita Sahu, Inakshi Sobti and Amandine Roggeman, moderated by Dr. Shwetal A. Patel. Kolkata Centre for Creativity and Emami Art have created significant rooms for crucial cultural engagements and have revitalised the contemporary art scene in the eastern regions of India for the last few years. It is always a pleasure to collaborate with IAF, and the support we have received over the years has been impeccable." says Richa Agarwal, CEO, Emami Art and Chairperson, KCC.
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Special Programme
Panel Discussion: Five Years of Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) and Emami Art: Supporting Artists, Building Institutions & Promoting Cultural Exchange.
Date: 03 February 2024
Panellists: Speakers: Richa Agarwal, Ushmita Sahu, Inakshi Sobti and Amandine Roggeman Moderator: Dr. Shwetal A. Patel
Synopsis Four pioneering women, Richa Agarwal (Founder of Emami Art & Chairperson of KCC), Ushmita Sahu (Director of Emami Art), Inakshi Sobti (CEO Asia Society) and Amandine Roggeman (Cultural Attache - French Embassy in India), share their inspiring journeys with the art and culture industry of the region. In this conversation with Dr. Shwetal Patel, the panel will share how they are catalysing the arts for societal betterment and reflect on the growing role of initiatives such as Emami Art in pushing the boundaries of contemporary artistry in West Bengal. This is a not-to-miss opportunity to gain insights into the art history of Kolkata and northeastern India and engage with leading practitioners in their fields. The session will conclude with a special announcement by the Director of Emami Art, Ushmita Sahu, on a new international programme.
About the Speakers
Richa Agarwal
Richa Agarwal spearheads Emami Art, Kolkata, one of India’s leading private art organisations. Emami Art focuses on a future-forward vision while upholding established cultural heritages, hosting temporary exhibitions of modern, contemporary and cutting-edge art, while also presenting works from its collection, besides artist commissions for site-specific locations. Invested in fostering a dynamic relationship that relies on collaborative and educational values to create a support system for the arts and crafts of the region and beyond, Agarwal has guided the institution to traverse regional, national and international platforms. Under her leadership Emami Art has been recognised as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in East India and she has been widely recognised for her contribution to the field. A successful entrepreneur who chairs several companies and boards, Richa Agarwal has a background in business studies, and is the recipient of several honours including The New Indian Express Group DEVI AWARD (2022), TIMES BRAND ICONS EAST (2021), The Times Power Women award (2018), and the St Xavier’s University, Kolkata honour for outstanding contribution to art and culture. Agarwal has initiated many heritage restoration projects in the region and is a prominent philanthropist in West Bengal.
Ushmita Sahu
Ushmita Sahu has a background in Fine Arts from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. Before joining Emami Art in 2021, Sahu worked as an artist, independent curator, art writer, and scholar for several years, and has numerous national and international projects to her credit. She has steered Emami Art towards becoming a space of ferment, inclusivity and discourse. In addition to a multi-faceted approach to exhibitions, she has also introduced various programmes that explore collaborations, mentorship, critical dialogues, artistic and creative exchanges, and pedagogical approaches to knowledge-making and sharing. Sahu also lectures at different art and design institutes and mentors young artists.
Amandine Roggeman
Amandine Roggeman is currently Cultural Attaché at the French Embassy in India. She has studied Art History and Political Sciences and worked previously for private corporate foundations as well as public institutions in France, last being the Palace of Versailles. Since 2022, she has promoted artistic collaborations between French and Indian artists, fostering relationships with the cultural communities in these two countries. Lately, she has launched Villa Swagatam, a residencies network across France and India, with a specific focus on arts and crafts.
Inakshi Sobti
Inakshi is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Society India Centre, a global non-profit educational organisation that now spans four continents: Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. Asia Society seeks to navigate shared pathways between Asia and the rest of the world across the expanse of business, geo-politics and the arts. The India Centre, set up in 2006, is the only Centre for Asia Society in South Asia, with public and private programmes curated to present a range of perspectives on modern South Asia. Prior to joining Asia Society, she spent seven years with Harvard Business School’s India Research Centre leading Community Initiatives for them in South Asia. Before her time at HBS, she spent over 15 years with Citigroup India. Inakshi is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College and the London School of Economics, and an avid reader with a keen interest in art and aesthetics. Committed to inclusion and social enterprise, she serves as a mentor for a not-for-profit called Katalyst and has supported Ummeed and the Akanksha Foundation.
About the Moderator Dr. Shwetal A. Patel Dr. Shwetal A. Patel is a writer and researcher practising at the intersection of visual art, exhibition-making and development studies. He works internationally–– primarily in Europe and South Asia–– and is a founding member of Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, responsible for international partnerships and programmes. He holds a practice-based PhD from Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton,
where his thesis was titled 'Biennale Practices: Making and Sustaining Visual Art Platforms'. He is a guest lecturer at Zürich University of the Arts, Royal College of Art, and Exeter University, besides being an editorial board member at OnCurating.org and a trustee at Milton Keynes Museum and Coventry Biennial. He lives between the United Kingdom, Belgium and India.
Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) is a multi-disciplinary arts centre of excellence established in 2018 by Anamika Kala Sangam Trust and the Emami Group. It is a first-of-its-kind non-profit arts initiative in East and Northeast India, presenting a multidisciplinary year-round programme that includes art exhibitions, dance performances, theatrical productions, music concerts, poetry recitals, film screenings, talks, workshops and seminars. KCC’s mission is to promote innovation, foster creativity and create opportunities for local and regional audiences. Through its distinctive approach, KCC aims to touch the lives of artists and art lovers and create new opportunities for students and young people, as well as specialists and arts professionals.
Emami Art is a leading Indian contemporary art gallery and a platform for cultural production. Established in 2017 in Kolkata, Emami Art represents emerging, mid-career and established artists and organises a dynamic programme of exhibitions and public seminars. Since its inception, the gallery has curated and hosted intimate and large-scale exhibitions and regularly participates in national and international art fairs and conferences. With a focus on a future-forward, complex, multi-dimensional approach that echoes South Asian history, the programme explores socio-cultural and geo-political narratives in relation to visual art practices today. As part of its knowledge-sharing and archiving activities, Emami Art regularly hosts talks, seminars, panel discussions and conversations between artists, curators and audiences to create a safe space for critical engagement. Deeply committed to promoting a regional, national and international agenda through innovative and alternative programming, the gallery places emphasis on knowledge production and socially conscious themes. Emami Art aspires to be a catalyst of change, research, innovation and inclusivity and welcomes all sections of society.
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IAF Studio Booth J05
Solo Digital Presentation by Janhavi Khemka Accessibility Partners: Kolkata Centre for Creativity and Access for All.
Emami Art showcases a solo digital presentation of interdisciplinary artist Janhavi Khemka, who began her career as a printmaker. In recent years, she expanded her artistic expression by including stop-motion animation, projection mapping, installations, and participatory and performance art in her practice. As a hearing-impaired person, she often found it difficult to verbally share her innermost feelings, impressions and reactions. Art has a transformative force in her life, enabling her to connect with the world through her hands and other senses. Khemka, with her congenitally impaired hearing, looks at the disability not as a disadvantage but as a lens through which one can see, understand and negotiate with the world in different ways. Each work expresses her unique ways of interacting with the world without acoustic sensation.
Since sound is locked out of her world, she has a particular fascination for rooms. They often appear in her prints and installations, just like the mat on which her mother had once taught her to read lips. A bittersweet sentiment emerges as she creatively explores tactile memory through woodcut prints and animated mouths. In her works, amorphous fear takes the form of muted storms or colossal waves that can crash into her world without notice.
Brief Bio of the Artist
Janhavi Khemka (b. 1993)
Born in 1993 in Varanasi, India, Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist who studied printmaking at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, graduating in 2017. She completed her Master of Fine Arts Studio Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA in 2023.
Khemka has participated in many major exhibitions in India and internationally, including solo shows such as "Unit #1505", Comfort Station, 2023, Chicago; UnMute at SITE Sharp Gallery, 2022 Chicago, USA. She was a part of group shows including What We Inherit, University Art Gallery, 2023, Truman State University, MO, USA; Coalesce, CSI Project Space, 2023, 1912 North Damen, Chicago; Neighbors, 2023, Purple Window Gallery, At Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Open Water: Permeating Territories, 2023, Chicago; Where she comes from, NEIU Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, USA; A photographic image as text Part I, Jolly Art Adda, Mumbai, India; Press Forward at Box 13 Art Space (Texas, 2021); Embodied Histories: Reconstructing the Present at Gallery SAIC (Chicago, 2021); Aroh at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021); Print Exposition at Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery (Chittagong, 2017); The Shape of Things at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2017); and many more. In addition, her work has been featured in Macrocosm, the International Print Exchange Program (2018-21) exhibition, several international art festivals, and print biennales. Khemka is a recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 63rd National Award 2023, Lalit Kala Academi, in printmaking; Chicago Sculpture International Fellowship, 2023, Chicago; Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation Award for Printmaking (2021, 2018) and the First Printmaking Prize Gate44 (Milan, 2019). Janhavi Khemka works between Santiniketan, Varanasi and Chicago.
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Emami Art Booth F03
Emami Art’s exhibit at the Fifteenth edition of the India Art Fair brings to you some of the most recent works by young, emerging and accomplished artists, largely from the eastern regions of India. Situating broadly within the geo-political contexts, artworks in the show explore the contemporary political ecosystems through social conditions, mobility, culture, memory and conflict. By exploring lesser-known facets overshadowed by dominant perspectives, the exhibition seeks to look at the regional tropes and aspirations, fostering the possibilities of resilience, hope and coexistence in an extremely turbulent time.
Arindam Chatterjee situates his subjects within the backdrop of enduring human afflictions, crises, and violence. Bholanath Rudra, in turn, adopts a surreal and dystopic lens to scrutinise the pervasive human intervention on Earth and the recurrent conflicts in the Anthropocene Age. Arpita Akhanda's work revolves around the exploration of personal and inherited memories, predominantly within the conceptual framework of the socio-political body, state, and borders. Arunima Choudhury employs distinctive techniques to construct a singular realm encapsulating the feminine and nature. Prasanta Sahu's meticulous documentation of the agrarian milieu underscores apprehensions about agency, knowledge, and power within the global neo-liberal paradigms. In their abstract works, Harsha Durugadda and Suman Dey intricately manipulate diverse formal elements, materials, shapes, and chromatic spectra to articulate the recesses of the subconscious and the enigmatic through unique visual styles. Soma Das, in her work, elucidates the intricacies of domestic spatiality, depicting women, children, and the quotidian lives of common people within a distinctive visual idiom. Ujjal Dey’s semi-abstract works trace the history of the intercontinental mercantile exchanges, shedding light on the syncretic tradition of textile art in South Asia, which played a major shape-shifting role in the region's political economy and social mobility. Anjan Modak captures the deleterious aspects of inequality, injustice and exploitation in the working-class world in its truest and most impactful sense. As a congenially hearing-impaired person, Janhavi Khemka's works explore her world and its minute aspects, often creating an awe and fantastical experience.
Featured Artists:
Anjan Modak
Arindam Chatterjee
Arpita Akhanda
Arunima Choudhury
Bholanath Rudra
Harsha Durugadda
Janhavi Khemka
Prasanta Sahu
Soma Das
Suman Dey
Ujjal Dey
Brief Bios of the Artists
Anjan Modak (b.1982)
Born in 1982 in West Bengal, India, Anjan Modak is a noted contemporary artist based in Kolkata. He studied painting at Rabindra Bharati University, graduating in 2009. He was a part of the duo show, Between the Self and Silhouettes, curated by Adip Dutta at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2022). His solo shows include Fragmented Life (2020) and Black, White and More (2016), held at Emami Art, Kolkata. In addition, his work has been featured in numerous significant group exhibitions at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021); Tamarind Art Gallery (New York, 2008, 2010); Habitat Foundation (New Delhi, 2008); CIMA Gallery (Kolkata, 2017, 2019); ICCR (Kolkata, 2014); among many others.
His exhibition of over twenty-five paintings, The Common Man, was shown at the India Art Fair (New Delhi, 2020). Modak has been selected for the 2024 Alex Brown Foundation Residency Program. Anjan Modak’s works are part of major private collections in India and abroad.
He lives and works in Kolkata.
Born in West Bengal, Arindam Chatterjee studied painting at the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and has since exhibited nationally and internationally. A prominent abstract painter in the late 1990s and 2000s, he turned to figurative art to engage more directly with the social and political life of society.
His solo exhibitions include The Lightning Should Have Struck Me: Recent Work by Arindam Chatterjee at Gandhara Art Gallery (Kolkata 2015); Recent Work by Arindam Chatterjee at Akar Prakar (Kolkata 2012); Monologues at Tao Art Gallery (Mumbai 2006); The Airborne Stories at Chitrakoot Art Gallery (Kolkata 2005) and many others. He was a part of many group exhibitions including India Art Fair, 2023; Constellations at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2020), Black Hole Project at AM (Art Multi-Discipline) Art Gallery (Kolkata 2018); ENVISION: An Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by the Artists of Open Window at Birla Academy of Art and Culture (Kolkata 2014); Beneath The Black at Gandhara Art Gallery (Kolkata 2012): Remixing Charm: Post Painterly Art of the Local at Aakriti Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2015), and XI Triennale India (New Delhi, 2005). He received several awards including Navonmesha Puraskara, National Cultural Scholarship and Junior Research Fellowship from the Government of India, H K Kejriwal Memorial Award in 1997 and the Silver Prize in the Drawing and Design Exhibition in Kyoto, Japan.
He lives and works in Kolkata.
Arpita Akhanda was born and brought up in a family of artists who migrated from Bangladesh during the partition and moved through many locations in India before settling in Cuttack, Odisha. She completed her B.F.A & M.F.A, in painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, 2015 & 2017. She was a part of many exhibitions and art fairs, including Art Dusseldorf 2023, Germany; India Art Fair 2023, New Delhi, India; AAIE Center for Contemporary Art (2022 – 23), Rome, Italy; AD Design show 2022, Mumbai, India; Kunstraum Aarau, Switzerland; Artissima Contemporary Art 2021, Torino, Italy. Akhanda
has performed at various international art spaces, including The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023, Sri Lanka; K21, Dusseldorf, Germany; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023; AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, 2023; India Art Fair 2022, New Delhi, India; Piramal Art Residency 2019-20, Maharashtra, India; Teertha International Performance Platform 2019, Sri Lanka. She is a recipient of Jan Van Eyck Residency 2022-23, Netherlands; 2022-23- Prince Claus Seed Fund; India Art Fair Artist in Residence 2022, New Delhi, India; Inlaks Fine Art Award 2022; Artist in Residence program 2021 Gästeatelier Krone, Aarau, Switzerland and many national scholarships and awards.
She is currently based in Santiniketan, India.
Arunima Choudhury (b.1950)
Born in 1950 In Siliguri, West Bengal, Arunima Choudhury studied painting at the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship and Design and Mass Communication at Chitrabani, Kolkata, between 1970 and 1978. Working primarily with vegetable colours on handmade papers, she is known for her works depicting the languid world of nature and human being, their intimacy and coexistence.
She has participated in several important group exhibitions such as Kolkata: Run in the Alley curated by Praneet Soi and Manuel Klappe at Marres (Netherlands, 2022), Feminine Facets at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021), Constellations, Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021); Hart Gallery, Beijing, China; Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata; among others. Her solo shows include, The Dark Edge of Green, curated by Nancy Adajania at Emami Art (Kolkata 2022), Khela at Seagull Foundation of the Arts and Nature as I See at Emami Art, both in Kolkata. Arunima Choudhury lives and works in Kolkata.
Born in 1984 in Kolkata, Bholanath Rudra studied painting at Rabindra Bharati University, graduating in 2013. He is a member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata, which he joined in 2019.
His solo shows include States of Mind at the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata, 2018 and Mechanical Libido at the Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata, 2013. Rudra’s works were featured in many group exhibitions, including the 64th Annual exhibition of 'Society of Contemporary Artists', Birla Academy of Art & Culture (Kolkata, 2023), MURTA /AMURTA, Akar Paker Gallery (Kolkata, 2023), Hub India – Maximum Minimum at Artissima (Torino, Italy, 2021); Fluid Boundaries and Insights at Emami Art, Kolkata (2020); Annual Art Exhibition of Society of Contemporary Artists (2022, 2020, 2019, 2017); Annual Art Exhibition at Birla Academy of Art & Culture (2014, 2016, 2018); CIMA art gallery, Kolkata (2017); at Rajya Charukala Parishad, Kolkata (2017-19) and many more.
Bholanath has participated in many art residencies, including the International Artists Residency Program at Kira A. Princess of Prussia Foundation (Germany, Italy), in collaboration with Emami Art (Sept-Oct 2022). He was felicitated with many awards, including the State Gallery of Art Award, Telangana Government (2019), Birla Academy Annual Exhibition Award (2018), Rajya Charukala Parshad Annual Award (2017), National Exhibition Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, Karnataka (2017) and All India Watercolour Exhibition Award, AIFACS (2017).
Bholanath Rudra lives and works in Kolkata.
Harsha Durugadda (b. 1989)
Harsha Durugadda is a multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture and performance art. He is the winner of the Rio Tinto Sculpture Award 2017 at Sculpture by the Sea, Australia and is currently represented by Manuel Zoia Gallery Milan for the European Region. He currently lives and runs his large sculpture studio surrounded by agricultural lands where he implements permaculture principles to grow food and build with earthen architecture.
He was part of a Sotheby's New York contemporary auction in 2021. Durugadda’s sculptures have been exhibited internationally at Nord Art in Germany, Emergent Art Space in the United States, London, and Australia. In 2014, the Courtauld Institute of Art invited him to present on Ancient Buddhist Sculpture at the British Museum, London. He received the Andrew Stretton Memorial invitation in 2016 Sydney. Harsha has taken up a number of commission works for private clients and government agencies. His permanent public artwork can be seen at Busselton Jetty in Australia.
Durugadda uses sculpture, interactive work, and site-specific installations to bring to light the intricate understandings of the modern world. His work exposes the invisible elements of the larger fabric of life into tactical experiences, often-times bridging the distance between real and utopian.
Janhavi Khemka (b. 1993)
Born in 1993 in Varanasi, India, Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist who studied printmaking at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, graduating in 2017. She completed her Master of Fine Arts Studio Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA in 2023.
Khemka has participated in many major exhibitions in India and internationally, including solo shows such as "Unit #1505", Comfort Station, 2023, Chicago; UnMute at SITE Sharp Gallery, 2022 Chicago, USA. She was a part of group shows including What We Inherit, University Art Gallery, 2023, Truman State University, MO, USA; Coalesce, CSI Project Space, 2023, 1912 North Damen, Chicago; Neighbors, 2023, Purple Window Gallery, At Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Open Water: Permeating Territories, 2023, Chicago; Where she comes from, NEIU Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, USA; A photographic image as text Part I, Jolly Art Adda, Mumbai, India; Press Forward at Box 13 Art Space (Texas, 2021); Embodied Histories: Reconstructing the Present at Gallery SAIC (Chicago, 2021); Aroh at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021); Print Exposition at Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery (Chittagong, 2017); The Shape of Things at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2017); and many more.
In addition, her work has been featured in Macrocosm, the International Print Exchange Program (2018-21) exhibition, several international art festivals, and print biennales. Khemka is a recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 63rd National Award 2023, Lalit Kala Academi, in printmaking; Chicago Sculpture International Fellowship, 2023, Chicago; Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation Award for Printmaking (2021, 2018) and the First Printmaking Prize Gate44 (Milan, 2019).
Janhavi Khemka works between Santiniketan, Varanasi and Chicago.
Prasanta Sahu (b. 1968)
Prasanta Sahu, born in 1968 in Odisha, India, completed his diploma in Electrical Engineering (1987) before studying art. He earned his BFA in painting (1998) from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati and his Master's degree in painting from M.S. University, Baroda (2000), graduating summa cum laude from both universities.
Sahu has shown his work widely within and outside the country and participated in numerous workshops and residencies. His recent solos include Anatomy of a Vegetable: Ruminations on Fragile Ecosystems, at Kochi Muziris Biennale 2022-23 invited Satellite Programme, Mocha Art Café (Kochi, 2022), Suburban Shadows, Emami Art (2020) and Blueprint of a City, Kalakriti Art Gallery (2016). Sahu was a part of many important group exhibitions, including India Art Fair 2023, New Delhi; Politics of Paper, curated by Ushmita Sahu at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2022); Hub India – Maximum Minimum at Artissima (Torino, Italy, 2021); Disruptive Confluence at Museo Civico d'Arte Antica (Torino, Italy,2021); Multitudes and Assemblages at Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di (Torino, Italy, 2021); Blue India at Art Asia Art Fair (South Korea, 2018); Constellations at Bihar Museum (Patna, 2018); Postcards at Busan International Art Fair (South Korea, 2017); and many others. Sahu has been invited as a visiting faculty by several universities. Since 2001, he has been teaching in the Department of Painting at his alma mater, Kala Bhavana (Faculty of Fine Art), Visva Bharati University.
Prasanta Sahu lives and works in Santiniketan, India.
Soma Das (b.1979)
Born in 1979 in Kolkata, West Bengal, Soma Das studied painting at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, graduating in 2009. Working in the detailed, placid styles of miniature painting, she portrays in her work the life of working people, mostly women from humble economic backgrounds.
She has been the subject of the solo show Different Facets of Life at Gallery Nakshatra, Kolkata, 2010. She has participated in the India Art Fair, 2023; Bengal-Nama, curated by Ina Puri at Bikaner House, New Delhi presented by Gallery Art Positive (2022), duo group show Between Selves and Silhouettes curated by Adip Dutta at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2022) and her works have been showcased at several major galleries in Kolkata including CIMA Art gallery, Weavers Studio, Aakriti Art Gallery and ICCR. Her work has also been featured in exhibitions and art fairs in Delhi and Mumbai. She received the State Academy Award in 2008.
Soma Das has participated in many art residencies, including the International Artists Residency Program at Kira A. Princess of Prussia Foundation (Germany, Italy), in collaboration with Emami Art (Sept-Oct 2022).
Soma Das lives and works in Kolkata.
Suman Dey is a young contemporary artist based in Kolkata. Self-taught, he works in the language of abstraction, distilling the visible form into an abstract motif.
Suman Dey has exhibited widely in India. He has done his solo shows at several places, including ‘The Lost Fragrance of Memory’, Emami Art (2023, Kolkata); Taj Bengal, Kolkata (2011, 2014); ECA Art Walk, Kolkata (2011) and Chemould Art Gallery, Kolkata (2008). His works have also been shown in many duet and group exhibitions in the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2009, 2015, 2017); Shilpi Art Gallery (2008); in the Birla Annual Exhibition at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata (2018, 2016); in the Annual Exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2017), in the All India Exhibition at Emami Art (2016, 2017), in the Annual exhibition organised by the Rajya Charukala Parisad (2016); State Gallery of Art, Hyderabad (2018), India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (2018, 2022, 2023) and in a Group Exhibition, 2020 at Emami Art, Kolkata, among others.
He was awarded the Certificate of Merit for his work in the All-Indian Exhibition at Emami Art 2017.
Suman Dey lives and works in Kolkata, India.
Ujjal Dey (b.1992)
Born in 1992 in Ranchi, India, Ujjal Dey is a contemporary artist pursuing a doctorate from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He studied textile and design at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, graduating in 2017. His doctoral research focuses on the indigenous traditions and sustainable techniques of printing and dyeing.
He was a part of Fragments of Our Time, British Textile Biennial 2023, UK; Solo exhibition at Silvia’s Mother Gallery, Cromwell Palace, London, 2023; Art Dusseldorf 2023; India Art Fair, 2023; GOONJ: An Abstract Continuum at the Coomaraswamy Hall, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai; Raza Foundation’s 100 Yuva Sambhava (Delhi, 2022); International Fiber Arts of Time Exhibition, Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University (2021); Departure at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2020); Pentamerous at Art Exposure (Kolkata, 2018); The Shape of Things at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2017); and several other significant exhibitions in India. In addition, Ujjal has participated in many international workshops, art camps and seminars on textiles. He is the recipient of the Junior Fellowship (2018-2019) and National Scholarship (2016) by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
Ujjal Dey lives and works in Santiniketan, West Bengal.