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A. Purkayastha
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"I don`t see myself just as an artist, but as an activist, who is trying to draw attention to the dying arts. The Supreme Courts judgment three years ago, allowing the commercial use of forest resources has left lakhs unemployed in Assam. "The clay and straw goddesses of 6 to 9 feet have been replaced by images of permanent material like stone and concrete of 13 to 16 ft. in height. A layer of poisonous gases emitted by the oil...
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"I don`t see myself just as an artist, but as an activist, who is trying to draw attention to the dying arts. The Supreme Courts judgment three years ago, allowing the commercial use of forest resources has left lakhs unemployed in Assam. "The clay and straw goddesses of 6 to 9 feet have been replaced by images of permanent material like stone and concrete of 13 to 16 ft. in height. A layer of poisonous gases emitted by the oil refinery covers Digboi, my hometown. The fire of the inflammable gasses is seen in the paddy fields. Time is measured by the factory whistle. The agricultural fields are being turned into tea gardens. Hills are being created by waste material."
Ashim Purkayastha sees himself as a social activist as much as a painter and captures the trauma and the problems of his home state, Assam, on canvas. "A respite at Santiniketan, where I studied, gave me temporary relief and I stopped drawing what troubled me in Assam. But a brief stay in Baroda, and then in Delhi city, brought back the imagery of the land that linked my past to my present," he says.
In several of his landscapes, Purkayastha uses cut-outs, layering them with three-dimensional compositions that capture the space around them. "My work is not nostalgic," he insists, "it takes on the problems of an industrialising society head-on."
Purkayastha grew up in the oil town of Digboi in Assam, and went on to study art at Santiniketan, where he was a student of the well-known painter Jogen Chowdhury.
At Santiniketan, he studied and also painted various folk traditions and did a comparative study of popular art. These influences go into making some of his works . He has also drawn inspiration from Delhi, and he often uses images like the closed cubes of a city, the television set and every-day use articles.
Ashim Purkayastha lives and works in Delhi.
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Born
1967
Digboi Assam
Education
1994 Master in Fine Arts (Painting), Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal
1992 Bachelor in Fine Arts (Painting), Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009-10 'Family/ Families', Vadehra...
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009-10 'Family/ Families', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2006 ‘Borderline’, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; Anant Art Gallery, Kolkata
2006 ‘Dilli Dilwalon Ki’, Visual Art Gallery, Habitat Centre; Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2004-05 ‘Attached Wings’, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2001 ‘Gandhi / Man without Specs’, Khoj, New Delhi
2001 'Insured Home', Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata
1999 Gallery Espace, New Delhi
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 'Peak Shift Effect', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 'Fragility', Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon
2011 'Natural Bodies, Subverted Canons', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 'Pause: A Collection', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2010-11 'A Collection', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2009 'Indian Summer', Galerie Christian Hosp, Berlin
2009 'Godown', The Guild, Mumbai
2009 'Bapu', presented by Saffronart in association with Berkeley Square Gallery, London
2008-09 'Where In The World', Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, Harayana
2008-09 'Mutant Beauty', Anant Art Centre, New Delhi
2008 'Ghost of Souza', Aicon Gallery, New York
2008 'Everywhere Is War (And Rumors of War)', Bodhi Art, Mumbai
2008 'Santhal Family: Positions Around an Indian Sculpture', in association with Bodhi Art, and supported by the British Council, Kunststiftung NRW and the Provence of Antwerp at Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (MuKHA), Belgium
2008 ‘India Crossing’, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy
2007-08 ‘Polyphonies’, Gallery Hosp, Tirol – Österreich, Austria
2007-08 Indian Art at the Swarovski ‘Crystal World’, 2nd Exhibition, Tirol – Österreich, Austria
2007 ‘New Wave: Contemporary Art from India’, Aicon Gallery, London
2006 ‘Subcontingent, The Subcontinent in Contemporary Art’, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy
2006 ‘Lila / Play’: Contemporary Miniatures and New Art from South Asia, Span Gallery, Melbourne
2005 ‘Self X Social : Self, Stranger, Parent, Recourse, Worker’, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
2005 ‘Negotiating Matter/s’, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2004 ‘Hindu Moon In Mughal Garden’, Nature Morte, New Delhi
2004 'The Making of India Project’, SAHAMAT, Lalit Kala Akademi, NewDelhi
2002-03 ‘Soonapan’, organized by Crossways Communication, Kishangarh, Rajasthan
1998 ’50 Years of Indian Independence’, Lalit Kala Kendra, Kolkata and Santiniketan
1998 ‘New Perceptions, Images and Media’, organised by Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata; Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, New Delhi
1998 ‘Cryptograms’, Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai,
1998 S'ix Artists', Gallery Espace, New Delhi
1997 'Palash', Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1996 '12 Contemporary Painters', Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1993 Art Exhibition, State Art Gallery, Guwahati
1992 ‘Print Today’, Bangalore
1990 Guwahati
Participations
2011 'Of Gods and Goddesses, Cinema, Cricket: The New Cultural Icons of India', Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2009 'Expressions at Tihar', Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi
2009 'Contemporary Indian Art: Open Your Third Eye', National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
2008 'Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art', 5th Anniversary Exhibition, Mori Art Museum, Japan
2006 Kolkata KHOJ, International Artist’s Workshop, Baripur
2005 Britto International Artists Workshop, Bangladesh
2003 Project: ‘Parcel Cover’, National Exhibition, Kalakendra, Guwahati, Assam
1996 VI Biennale of Contemporary Indian Art, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
Honours and Awards
2004 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, New York
2001,1993 The Elizabeth Greenshields, Foundation Award, Canada
1997 Junior Fellowship, HRD, Government of India
1988-92 Assam State Cultural Scholarship
2004 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, New York
2001,1993 The Elizabeth Greenshields, Foundation Award, Canada
1997 Junior Fellowship, HRD, Government of India
1988-92 Assam State Cultural Scholarship
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PAST AUCTIONS
Showing
4
of
16
works
PAST StoryLTD AUCTIONS
Showing
4
of
10
works
EXHIBITIONS
Showing
4
of
6
works
Lot 13
Details
BAPU.
15 Jan-16 Feb 2009
Unknown Family...
Pencil and watercolour on paper
39.5 x 27.5 in
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Lot 14
Details
BAPU.
15 Jan-16 Feb 2009
Unknown Family...
Pencil and watercolour on paper
39 x 27.5 in
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Lot 15
Details
BAPU.
15 Jan-16 Feb 2009
Unknown Family...
Pencil and watercolour on paper
39 x 27.5 in
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Lot 16
Details
BAPU.
15 Jan-16 Feb 2009
Unknown Family...
Pencil and watercolour on paper
84 x 55 in
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See all works in past exhibition
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