In Jagannath Panda’s (b.1970, Bhubaneswar, India) detailed mixed-media paintings, drawings, and sculptures, mythology merges with reality, combining motifs from traditional Indian art with imagery from both Western and Indian contemporary cultures. The natural and the manmade collide and coalesce both seamlessly and uncomfortably in his works. Panda illustrates the paradoxes inherent in India’s burgeoning development and prosperity, recontextualizing the life of the Delhiite within a metaphysical, almost transcendental framework.
Panda’s works are held in several collections, including at the Ishara Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Panda holds a BFA from the B.K. College of Arts & Crafts, Bhubaneshwar (1991), an MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda (1994), and an additional MFA in sculpture from the Royal College of Arts, London (2002). The artist had a solo exhibtion with Aicon Contemporary in 2020, in addition to his solo show currently on view, “Thresholds of the Elsewhere.”
Panda lives and works in New Delhi, India.