Tanmoy Samanta was born in West Bengal in 1973 and received his art education from Kal Bhavan, Santiniketan. Known for his gouache paintings on rice paper, his works employ muted subdued colours to create a stone-like...
Tanmoy Samanta was born in West Bengal in 1973 and received his art education from Kal Bhavan, Santiniketan. Known for his gouache paintings on rice paper, his works employ muted subdued colours to create a stone-like texture whose variations are as fascinating to trace as any other aspect of the paintings. Like sedimentary rocks, Samanta's works have layers. His subjects are almost iconographic representations of everyday objects rendered in an unfamiliar light yet retaining certain essential features which capture the spirit of the objects. Creatures resemble objects and vice-versa in these paintings, producing visual metaphors whose impact is aided by their succinct, descriptive titles. Other works use recycled books as both artistic medium and artefact.
BIODATA
Tanmoy Samanta was born in West Bengal in 1973 and received his art education from Kal Bhavan, Santiniketan. Known for his gouache paintings on rice paper, his works employ muted subdued colours to create a stone-like texture whose variations are as fascinating to trace as any other aspect of the paintings. Like sedimentary rocks, Samanta's works have layers. His subjects are almost iconographic representations of everyday objects rendered in an unfamiliar light yet retaining certain essential features which capture the spirit of the objects. Creatures resemble objects and vice-versa in these paintings, producing visual metaphors whose impact is aided by their succinct, descriptive titles. Other works use recycled books as both artistic medium and artefact.
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Tagore Lost & Found, curated by Bina Sarkar Ellias, Art Bull, New Delhi
2012 Works on Paper, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2012 Still Life, Art Motif, New Delhi
2011 Fabular Bodies: New Narratives in the Art of the Miniature, curated by Gayatri Sinha, Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai
2010 10x10, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi
2010 Beyond Objecthood, Gandhara Art Gallery, Kolkata
2009 Eye of the Needle, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2008 The Light of the Mind, Anant Art Gallery, Kolkata
2006 The Anecdote & Its Shadow, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
Group Exhibitions
2009 Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality, curated by Sunil Mehra at Lalit Kala Akademi, by Gallery Espace, New Delhi.
2009 Vicissitudes of the Constructed Image, Tangerine Art Space, Bangalore
2008 Keep Drawing, conceptualized by Chintan Upadhaya, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2008 Constructing the Present, Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata
2007 Telling It Like It Is: The Indian Story, at Cork Street Gallery, London, by Gallery Espace.
2007 Configuration, Anant Art Gallery, Kolkata.
2006 Making History Our Own, presented by SAHMAT, at AIFACS, New Delhi
2006 Contemporary Art Show, CIMA, Kolkata
2006 Paper Flute, curated by Johny ML, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2005 Back to the Future, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2005 Art of Young Bengal, curated by Pranabranjan Roy, Akriti Art Gallery, Kolkata
2004 Dialogues, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
1996 Young Santiniketan Today, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai