28 JANUARY 2022 /

BETWEEN BODY AND IMAGINATION /

Solo Show by /

SHOVIN BHATTACHARJEE /

An Exhibition titled “Between Body and Imagination, Shovin Battacharjee’s Inner Quest” is on show and will continue till 10 March, 2022 at Dhoomimal Gallery, Connaught Place, New Delhi.

Shovin Bhattacharjee is an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist who has been working in the field of art and design for the last two decades.

The Solo exhibition featuring his artistic work done during the last four years  planned to host in 2019 was postponed due to the pandemic, but now it emerges to celebrate human endeavor to overcome any adversaries and survive despite any challenges.

Shovin Battacharjee’s paintings are primarily created in acrylic and charcoal on canvas. Thematically they deal with animal life engaging with urbanity. For his recent series he also uses the trope of mirror imagery where the image of the tiger, leopard, zebra or civet cat is split into two beings located on either side of the canvas with the sprawling city between them.

In works like Galaxy on earth, the artist uses the metaphor of the hand-pulled rickshaws, rendered in white to give them a sense of purity, surrounded by fiery red shaped balls that appear almost demonic.

 The artist has created “an entire composition based on the plight of the common man, the lowest ‘denominator’ on the rung of society, the rickshaw-puller who was quite crushed by the weight of deprivation with little or no access to basic facilities”.

Shovin Battacharjee expresses himself across mediums and metaphors, whether it is his sculptures, installations, paintings or even his digital work that manifest these days as popular NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) which he began creating long before it became a craze as it is today.

“I began working in digital format with my camera and computer, as early as 2002, even before I moved to New Delhi. There was this misrepresentation that digital artwork is just about cut and paste, but I think that is changing now. People are beginning to understand that it takes as much creativity to create a digital image, whether it is from a photograph or works that you have made in 3-D in photo shop.  When PHD students approach me to study about the digital world created by artists and popularized by NFTs, then I begin to feel that people are taking it seriously at long last,” says the artist whose studio is at Sri Niwaspuri, New Delhi.

 “Stainless steel is a medium that I enjoy working with even though it is very demanding and unforgiving. Unlike bronze that may be melted and recast and reused, in stainless steel, when one makes a mistake, one usually has to junk the entire piece and start afresh.  Which is why one has to work meticulously with lots of precision and planning,” says the famous artist who prefers to work in the medium of stainless steel, aluminum and wood also.

He studied BFA and MFA in painting from Fine Arts Department, University of Assam.

He has conducted many exhibitions in India and abroad. 

He has received many awards including the State Award by the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Meghalaya.

He is the recipient of a National Scholarship, Lalithakala Akademi, New Delhi