Animesh Roy

Born in one of the most artistic places in Bengal, Krishnagar, famous for its clay sculptures, Roy has been crisscrossing since a child as his parents had transferable jobs. A sense of adventure was instilled in him as a child through treks in the Himalayas.

Inspiration comes from adventure, travel, meeting people, visiting villages, monasteries, temples, churches, mosques, and graveyards. He would not be able to work in the confines of a comfortable city studio. Though many of his works do get physically done in a studio - the germs are born on the road, while travelling, soaking in.

Roy has been a rebel and a traveller and his natural skills are completely untrained. His artistic growth did get stunted from four years of exile in the Delhi College of Art, trying to get a meaningless ‘art degree’. He planned for a ‘break’ like Papillon succeeding with two back to back solo shows just out of college in 1992, thus earning the ire of the art critics and his art college Professors! Since then Roy has had several solo shows in major Indian cities and in Europe, with widespread appreciation from the critics and collectors alike. Roy travelled to Ladakh in 1995 in the comforts of an aircraft and called it - Travels with a Donkey - a R. L. Stevenson travelogue. He did some 100 drawings in and around Leh.

Then around 1997 he went into a hiatus — reading, learning how to drive and travelling furiously whenever his budget would allow — Nepal, Bhutan, America, Sikkim, Garhwal, Himachal, Rajasthan, Kutch, UP, Bengal, Goa, Madras. He stopped painting and exhibiting, cutting himself off from the ‘art world’ but continued quietly to do pen-and-ink drawings of places visited. From 1996 to 2004 Roy did extensive pen-and-ink drawing of Delhi’s ruins: Mehrauli, Tughlakabad, Adilabad, Sri, Sultan Ghari, Old Delhi etc., while constantly planning his next trip to Leh by road via Manali a distance of over 3,000 km from Delhi and back. In 2004 he went back to Ladakh, this time traveling alone in his jeep, battling severe high altitude sickness, driving through some of the world’s highest altitude roads and passes. He paints this time. Early 2006 he visited Banaras and came back to his studio in Delhi to produce some 30 odd paintings in acrylics on canvas mostly inspired by the spring and summer of Delhi and a new found joy in his heart. Roy is now back to his first love – painting.

Roy went to Poland in 2007. It was early spring and the earth was coming back to life after a harsh winter. Everyday fresh blades of grass and wildflowers would spurt. Soon the landscape was flooded with flowering trees, shrubs, herbs... it was difficult to keep pace with ever-changing landscape. Before you could decide and go back to a spot the flowers have gone and was greeted by something new! He spent about six months in Poland, travelling and painting. By the time he packed his easel and paints, he had finished about sixty odd works during his sojourn. Most of the works were done in the open air, and when the weather would turn too rough for outdoors, he would do some still life indoors. Why Poland? Heart has its reason, which the mind cannot fathom.

Roy is currently painting in Europe trying to complete his art 'degree' in the beautiful landscape and museums of Europe!

1986-90 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Delhi College of Art, India

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010-11 Exhibition of Oils, Kamea Gallery, Poznan, Poland

2009 Plein Air in Poland Paintings (Oil, Acrylic on Linen) Online Solo Show, Indian Art Collectors website

2009 Exhibition of Paintings, Slide Show and interactive session with the artist, Galeria Spotkań, Poznan, Poland

2009 Romantic Days In Poland – II, Paintings (Oil on Linen), Online Artist of the Month, Indian Art Collectors website

2008 Romantic Days In Poland, Paintings (Oil on Linen), Online Solo Show, Indian Art Collectors website

2006 A Traveler’s Palette, Drawings and Paintings (Oils, Acrylic and Pen & Ink), Open Palm Court Gallery, The Habitat Centre, New Delhi

1996 Drawings and Paintings, (Water Color, Acrylic, Mix Media and Pen & Ink), Sophie Duchesne Art Gallery, Bombay

1995 Travels With A Donkey, Drawings of Ladakh, (Pen and Ink Drawings), Mirage: Gallery of Art's, New Delhi

1995 Paintings & Drawings, (Water Color, Acrylic, Mix Media and Pen & Ink), Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta

1994 Paintings & Drawings, (Water Color, Acrylic, Mix Media and Pen & Ink), Triveni Gallery, New Delhi

1992 ‘On The Road’ Paintings (Acrylic), M.E.C. Art Gallery, New Delhi

1992 Paintings (Water Color and Mixed Media), Masterpiece Art Gallery, New Delhi




GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008 The Art People show, (Oil, Acrylic on Canvas), AIFACS, New Delhi

2008 The Art People show, (Oil, Acrylic on Canvas), Travancore Art Gallery, New Delhi

1994 Paintings (Water Color and Acrylic), AIFACS, New Delhi

1992 Paintings (Water Color), Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi

1992 Paintings (Acrylic), M.E.C. Art Gallery, New Delhi

1991 Paintings (Water Color and Mixed Media), selected by M. F. Hussain, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi

I owe my presence as an artist/painter on the Web (World Wide Web) to Mojarto. Starting off as I did in the early 1990s, we had to depend on Art galleries run in real spaces, till the Internet intervened and changed all that!! The dependence on snooty upmarket galleries, a scourge on young artists finally ended. And Mojarto is one of the early pioneers to bring together artists and art collectors on the Web.