Jayashree Chakravarty

Jayashree Chakravarty was born in Khoai in Tripura in 1956 but grew up in a developing suburb of Kolkata. Witnessing the lush green landscape of his childhood gives way to a gray mass of concrete that would later influence his work, which often addresses urban landscapes old and new. Describing his work as autobiographical and dreamlike, Chakravarty crafts his unique language to express ideas of truth, nature, and unity. He often experiments with organic materials, paper, rice paper, tissue and cellophane, creating fluid and transparent images that lend themselves to multiple interpretations. 

The artist completed her bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, in 1978, and received a postgraduate diploma from M S University, Vadodara, in 1980. In 1993, she emigrated to France, where she worked as a resident artist. She was in Aix-en-Provence for two years, where she met and was influenced by the French artistic movement Supports Surfaces and the work of painter Claude Viallat. 

In her works, Chakravarty uses overlapping shapes, similar to the sketches that cave painters worked on before capturing them on cave walls. She believes that interacting with human beings from a distant country and a different culture expanded the horizons of her imagination and forced certain preconceived images to change. Chakravarty's ink-on-paper sketches are an exercise in transforming personal experience into mystical truth. 

Chakravarty has exhibited her work in museums and galleries around the world. Her works are also part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and the Chandigarh Museum. Chakravarty lives and works in Kolkata.

BORN

1956 Khoai, Tripura

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

1993-1995 Artist in residence at Ecole d Art, Aix-en-Provence, France

1980 Postgraduate Diploma, Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Vadodara

1978 BFA, Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 Sightings Out of the Wild, Kiran Nadar Art Museum, Noida

2019 A Connected Ecology, Akar Prakar, New Delhi

2017 The Earth as a refuge under the canopy of love, Musee National Des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris and Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai

2016 Life will never be the same, in association with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) at the Musee Des Arts Asiatiques De Nice, France

2014 If you will stay close to nature, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi

2009 Whispers of the Wind, Aicon, London

2007 Drawing Center, SoHo, USA

2007 Where the Sand Meets the Sky, Bodhi Art, New York

2006 On the Very Face of Time, Galerie 88, Calcutta

2004 Bose Pacia Gallery, New York

2003 Experience Road Map, IHC Visuals Art Gallery, New Delhi

2000 Ricochet Thoughts, Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi

1999 Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata

1998 The Drawing Room, The Drawing Center, New York

1997 Gallery 7, Bombay

1995 Edole d Art, Aix-en-Provence

1994 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata

1992 Espace Gallery, New Delhi

1992 Sakshi Gallery, Bombay

1992 Saksi Gallery, Chennai

1990 Gallery 7, Bombay

1989 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata

1988 Artistic Heritage, New Delhi

1983 Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta

1982 Urja Art Gallery, Baroda

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

2019 Calcutta Santiniketan, Galerie Mirchandani Steinruecke, Mumbai

2014 Beneath the Black Part 2, Gandhara Art Gallery, Kolkata

2012 Aviraam Celebrating the Pioneer Spirit SH Raza at 90, presented by The Raza Foundation at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2011-12 Back to School Baroda 1979-89, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai

2011 The Lost Sparrow, presented by Gallery Threshold at Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. 

2011 Form and Formlessness, Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon

2011 The Aviary, Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata

2011 Lasting Legacy, Akar Prakar, Calcutta, Neumeister Gallery, Munich

2011 Palimpsest, Aicon Gallery, New York

2011 Narratives, quotes and comments, Grosvenor Gallery, London

2011 Back to School Baroda 1979-89, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi

2010 Looking Glass The Existence of Difference, Twenty Indian Contemporary Artists presented by Religare Arts Initiative, New Delhi in collaboration with American Center, British Council, Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi

2010-11 Image Writing, The Harrington Street Arts Centre, Kolkata, W+K Exp, New Delhi

2010 Invisible Cities, Aicon Gallery, New York

2010 Tales of Silence, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

2010 Nature Revisited, Sanskriti Gallery, Kolkata

2010 Size Matters or Doesn't, Part 2 at Latitude 28, New Delhi

2010 Beyond Object Hood, presented by Gandhara Art Gallery at Nandalal Bose Hall, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Kolkata

2009-10 Unclaimed Spaces, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi

2009 Think Small, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

2009 Threshold Forging Narratives in Contemporary South Asian Art, Aicon Gallery, New York

2009 Divagations Spaces of Possibility, Raza Foundation Awardee Exhibition, Art Alive, New Delhi

2008 Baroda A Tale of Two Cities, (Part I), Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara

2008 Mapping Memories - 2, Painted Travelogues of Bali and Burma, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi

2008 Of personal narratives and journeys, Bodhi Art, Gurgaon

2008 Stories, reflections and constructions, Galerie 88, Calcutta

2008 Excavations Memory, Myth, Membrane, Art Reflections, Mumbai

2007 Indian Art III Here and Now Young Voices of India, Grosvenor Vadehra, London

2005 Towards Abstraction, Bodhi Art and Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi

2005 Angkor The Silent Centuries, Bodhi Art, Singapore and New Delhi

2005 Paths of Progression, Bodhi Art and Saffronart, Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore, New York

2004 Stree, paintings by contemporary Indian artists, Bodhi Art, Singapore

2002 Perspecta, organized by Galerie88, Kolkata, sponsored by UBS, at Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London

2001-2 Secular Practice, Recent Art from India, organized by Hoopoe Curatorial at Optica, Montreal, and Vancouver, Canada. 

2001 New Works, Galerie88, Calcutta

2001 Tramjatra, a public art event organized by RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

1998 Multimedia Art of the 90s, Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata

1998 Espace Gallery, New Delhi

1998 National Council for Cultural Arts and Letters-Contemporary Indian Art, Al-Funoon Gallery, Dhahiat Abdullah Al Salem, Kuwait

1997 Colors of Independence, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi

1997 Appointment with Destiny-Art of Modern India, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

1997 Major Trends in Indian Art, New Delhi. 

1997 Fire and Life, organized by Asia Pacific at IMA, Brisbane, Canberra

1997 Women Artists of India: A Celebration of Independence, Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland

1997 Gouache and contemporary painting, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi

1997 The Looking Glass Self: an exhibition of images of the self, Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai

1996 Art Today, New Delhi

1996 Highlights, curated by the Center for International Modern Art Gallery (CIMA) at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1996 Fire and Life, an international artist exchange residency between India and Australia. 

1995 Watercolors: A Broader Spectrum -1, Chemould Gallery, Mumbai

1992 Subjective Eye, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

1991 Journey within the Landscape, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

1990 Indian Contemporary Artists, organized by MICA, Melbourne

1990 Art Mosaic, Calcutta, Mumbai, New Delhi

1990 Gadhya Parva Exhibition, Chemould Gallery, Mumbai

1989 Indian Eclectics, sponsored by the French Embassy and Sanskrit Pratisthan, New Delhi

1989 Chemould Gallery, Calcutta

1989 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata

1988 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta

1987 Chitrakala, Stockholm, organized by Festival of India and Kulturhuset, Sweden

1984, 82, 80 National Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta

PARTICIPATIONS

2007 Asian Contemporary Art Fair, New York represented by Aicon Gallery, New York

1997 Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh

1997 Ninth Triennial - India, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi

HONORS AND AWARDS

Raza Award 2008, Raza Foundation

1997 Honorable Mention Award, Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh

1991 Scholarship, Government of France

1989 British Council Visiting Scholarship

1982 Elizabeth Green Shield Foundation Scholarship, Canada

1980 Bombay Art Society Award, Mumbai

1979 Government of India Cultural Scholarship

1979 Silver Medal, Bombay Art Society, Mumbai