Prasanta Sahu

BORN
1968 Balasore, Orissa

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS
1998-2000 MFA (Painting), Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
1993-98 BFA (Painting), Kala-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan
1986-87 Electrical Engineering Training, Orissa
1983-86 Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Barapada College of Engineering and Technology, Orissa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 Dalis Elephant, Aicon Gallery, London
2010 Irreverent Gen, Crimson- The Art Resource, Bangalore
2009 Nature versus modernity, Indian Fine Arts, Mumbai
2009 Nothing Will Be the Same Again, Hirji Jehangir Gallery, Mumbai
2009 Life is a Stage, Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA), Mumbai
2008 Art for Freedom, group exhibition and auction in London, jointly organized by Tehelka Art and Aicon Gallery, London
2008 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai
2008 Image of Self, Kolkata Gallery, Calcutta
2008 A MAZ ING, organized by RPG Enterprises at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007 Embodied, Art and Soul Gallery, Mumbai
2007 Young Guns, Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA), Mumbai
2007 Flow, Freeze, Focus, Kolkata Gallery, Calcutta
2007 VI(S)VA, a chronicle of difference, exhibition for three people, AICON Art Gallery, New York
2007 From modern to contemporary, Kolkata Gallery
2007 Pastiche, Red Earth Gallery, Vadodara
2007 The Rock Show, Gallery Art Resource Trust, Mumbai
2006 Artist of the Month, online exhibition at Gallery Art Alive, New Delhi
2006 Critical Imperatives: The Ethics of Identity, Nakshatra Art Gallery, Kolkata
2006 Drawing Exhibition: An Act of Art II, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 The Guild, New York
2006 Art of Young Bengal, Aakriti Gallery, Kolkata
2006 Real-2006, India Habitat Center, organized by Art Matters
2006 Drawing Exhibition, Priyashree Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 The Essence, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 Evam, charity group exhibition, Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006 Art Camp in Hyderabad, organized by Krishna Kriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad
2006 Fusing Culture, Sarjan Art Gallery, Baroda
2005 Palette-II, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 Vi - Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 Contemporary Art Camp, organized by Popular Prakashan, Mumbai at ITC. Sonar Bangla, Kolkata
2005 Bird on a Wire, an online group exhibition organized by The Arts Trust, Mumbai
2005 Change of direction, inaugural group exhibition, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
2005 Ways of Seeing, organized by Art Alive Gallery, India Habitat Center, New Delhi
2005 Art for God Sake, organized by Arts Trust, Mumbai at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
2005 Summer Exhibition, Center International of Modern Art (CIMA) Art Gallery, Kolkata
2005 Versions, Birla Academy of Art and Culture
2005 New Wave in Bengali Art: A Critics' Choice, Akar Prakar Gallery, Kolkata
2005 Allegories, an exhibition for three people, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi
2005 Chair Project, Sarjan Art Gallery, Baroda
2004 Concepts and Ideas, Art Gallery of the Center International of Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata
2004 The World of Screen Printing, Sarjan Art Gallery, Baroda
2004 Generation I, jointly organized by Saffron Art and Guild Art Gallery at Saffron Art Gallery, Mumbai
2004 A New Media Realism, ABS Bayers Gallery, Baroda
2004 Looking Back and Forward, Sarjan Art Gallery, Baroda
2003 Recent works on paper, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi
2003 Migration, City-Home, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
2003 Transition, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta
2002-03 Kala-Bhavana Teachers' Workshop and Exhibition, Nandan Gallery, Santiniketan
2002 RPG Self-Portrait Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
2002 From Brahma to Bapu: New Icons and Symbols in Indian Art, India Habitat Center, New Delhi, and later at the art gallery of the Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Calcutta
2002 New Paradigms, organized by Gallery Threshold at India Habitat Center, New Delhi
2002 Homage to Picasso, Gallery Guild, Mumbai
2002 Selected Young Artists from Santiniketan, organized by Mrs. Renu Modi at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2001 Indian Contemporary Art, Saffronart.com Auction, Mumbai
2001 Nudes, Gallery Guild, Mumbai
2001 Self-portraits of artists, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai
2000 Stepping 0ut-a Three Man Show, Gallery Guild, Mumbai
1998 Exhibition of Rank Holders, Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Kolkata
1996 Sara Camp at Santiniketan, organized by Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Calcutta in Bhubaneswar, Orissa

SELECTED JOINT EXHIBITIONS
2005 The Sense of Touch, with Heeral Trivedi at Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai

PARTICIPATIONS
2008 Harmony Show, Nehru Centre, Mumbai
2008 Synchrome-IV, jointly organized by Tao Art Gallery and Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2008 The Miniature Format Show Part I, Sans Tache Art Gallery, Mumbai
2008 The Miniature Format Show Part III, Sans Tache Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007 12th Hall of Harmony, Nehru Centre, Mumbai
2007 International Art Fair, Rome
2006 Synchrome-III, Akar Prakar Gallery, Calcutta
2005 Synchrome II, Akar Prakar Gallery, Calcutta
2005 10th Harmony Hall, World Trade Center, Mumbai
2002 Seventh Hall of Harmony, Nehru Center, Mumbai
2001 Sixth Harmony Hall, Nehru Centre, Mumbai
2000 Miniature Exhibition-2000, Gallery Sans Tache, Mumbai
2000 43rd National Exhibition, Bangalore, organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

HONORS AND AWARD
2001 He is awarded the Gold Medal for achieving first position in the Department of Painting at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
2000 Nasreen Mehmodi Trust Award for achieving a first position at the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) level
2000 Awarded for best entry at Rangpur Painting Camp, organized by Camlin India Ltd
1999 Nasreen Mehmodi Scholarship for the best-standing student at the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) level, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
1997 Camlin Prize for obtaining the first position at the Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) level, Kala-Bhavana, Santiniketan
1996-98 Received a national scholarship from the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India
1995 Awarded at the 1st Eastern Print Biennale, by the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Calcutta
1993-97 Merit Scholarship, Kala-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Combining images and texts, Sahu borrows motifs from the media. The black and white photographic images adopt a documentary style, presenting a fragment of everyday reality, like the one we would probably find in a newspaper or magazine clipping. However, in Sahu's work, this process of citation operates on multiple levels.

The artist is intensely aware of the painterly surface of the canvas. The monochromatic paintings contrast with vividly painted areas and abrasions on the canvas that form interesting texture patterns. However, in his work, Sahu moves away from the modernist obsession with the formal properties of the painted surface. The paintings operate as performative gestures that connect the realms of art and society.

For example, if Sahu draws attention to the materiality of the canvas by deliberately disfiguring its surfaces, the technique also highlights the symbolic importance of the image thus stained. Violence is represented on the pictorial surface, so that art is no longer the terrain of isolated intellectual pleasure, but rather becomes an integral part of our social and political environment, implicated both in its aggression and a place for criticism.

As such, Sahu's painting functions as social commentary. Acutely aware of the conflicts inherent in the urban condition, his works draw ironic, sometimes poignant attention to its underlying brutality and covert hypocrisies. The crowd forms a familiar theme in his canvases. Through the representation of the seething mass of his faces, the artist analyzes common human feelings and the complicated relationship between individual consciousness and collective events.

The artist lives and works in Santiniketan.

Notification - We do not usually display Prasanta Sahu's work, only send it to private art collectors and interested art buyers.

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