Jayashree Chakravarty - Untitled - 21 x 16 inches (unframed size)
Mixed Media on Paper
Evolving Space (2008-9) the artist seems to be continuously drawing, erasing and re-drawing, stirring up an intricate visuality oscillating between broken outlines, short linear stroking and free floating squiggles. The outsizes pair of fish cling to each other, pushed to the edge/ base of the canvas- helpless and vulnerable. Several of her paintings around this time address growing environmental inequity and ecological imbalance, reflecting upon a self-inflicted predicament where human greed and power has marginalized every other form of life. These paintings are neither straightforward in their conception nor in their execution.
Style : Jayashree’s distinctive art practice over the last thirty years has expressed her deep concerns related to ecology and environmental catastrophe. Evolving her own art making techniques, using organic material and varied kinds of paper, her installations using paper scrolls remain unique in their conception and execution.
In her works, she uses superimposed forms, quite like the sketches that cave painters worked on before they mapped them on the walls of caves. Imagery, because of her fluid and transparent images, reflect the present mood of the world, which is fluid in itself. At a mere conventional and figurative level, her works reflect the unity of man with nature. Influenced by post-modernist painters, each of her canvas seems to embrace the entire gamut of colors that range from blues to even purple.
About the Artist & his work :
Born : 1956, Tripura
Education :
1978 - Graduated in Fine Arts from the Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan,
1980 - Post-graduate diploma from M.S.University, Baroda,
1982 - Received a Canadian grant to study art.
Solo Exhibitions :
2003: Route Map of Experience, India Habitat Centre. New Delhi, Presented by: Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi & Galerie88, Kolkata; In 2002: The Mind is its Own Place, Bose Pacia Modern, New York; in 2000: Thoughts Ricochet, Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi; in 1999: CIMA Gallery, Kolkata; in 1998 L The Drawing Centre, New York; in 1997 L Gallery7, Mumbai; in 1995: Ecole d’Art, Aix-en-Provence; in 1994: Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata; in 1992: Sakshi Gallery.Mumbai, Sakshi Gallery, Chennai; Gallery Espace. New Delhi.
Group Exhibitions :
1997 - Fire and Life, An Indo- Australian residency in Calcutta and Brisbane; Women Artists of India A Celebration of Independence, Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland;
1995 - A Braoder Spectrum, Watercolours, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai.
Award :
1980 - Bombay Art Society Award, Mumbai
1988 - II Bharat Bhavan Bienniale Award, Bhopal.
1997 - Honorable Mention Award, Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh.