ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
DEBNATH BASU
Born 1961, in Howrah, West Bengal
Bachelor of Visual Arts in Printmaking, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (1987)
Master of Visual Arts in Printmaking, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (1989)
Coming from the Bengal school where artists interrogate and reintegrate local styles into their work consistently and directly, it is still unique to see Debnath's work include a piece emphasizing a letter from the Bengali scripts as part of bringing out this local style. His recent work is has been a mix collages using ink on paper, all in grey tonalities. Viewers will find a human form that slowly emerges from these scribbles and marks. His fundamental idea that the more that is hidden and suppressed, the more his art must reveal and dismantle can be clearly understood in his grey, dark and dense works. The bedlam of his art gets a meaningful value when he writes these scripts/ texts entirely by hand without employing any mechanical means on the paper surfaces, often indecipherable because of its intentionally poor visibility yet clear and legible when pored over carefully. Debnath still draws inspiration about ideas and imageries of dominance, repression and victimization, from a personal encounter he had with the judicial system a decade back. He uses graphite dust procured from local iron foundries, all retextualising his model for artistic process.
Lives and works in Howrah, West Bengal. India.
Select Solo Exhibitions
2007 Scribbles from the Underground and Satire from Above, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto
1995 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
Select Group Exhibitions
2008 Ghost of Souza, Aicon Gallery, New York
2007 Confronting Globalisation, curated by Mrinal Ghosh, Mon Art Gallery, Kolkata
2006 Art of Young Bengal, curated by PranabRanjan Ray, Gallery Akriti, Kolkata
Eastern Edge, curated by Jayashree Chakrabarty, Aicon Gallery, New York
Shadow Lines, Vadehra Art Gallery, Kolkata
2005 New Wave in Bengal Art, curated by PranabRanjan Ray, Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata
Bridges Exploring New Paradigms, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi
Are We Like this Only, curated by Vidya Shivadas, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Gallerie 88, Kolkata
2002 Kapital and Karma, Recent position in Indian Art, Kunsthalle Wein, Austria
2001 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
2000 Graphic Expressions, organized by Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai exhibited in Mumbai,
Chennai, New Delhi and Kolkata
Fellowships
1993-95 Fine arts fellowship from Vikram Sarabhai Foundation
1992-94 Junior Fellowship, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India
1989-90 Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad