Pradip Das (b 1980) was born in Kolkata and continues to live there. He has completed his Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata in 2003 and his Masters of Visual Arts from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata in 2005.
He has worked as a painter, a multidisciplinary artist and has multiple installations, site specific art and public art projects to his credit. Since 2006 his works have been regularly exhibited at several galleries in Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Seoul, Milan, and Bonn. He has also attended residencies and workshops in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow and Kolkata.
In this series of paintings, artist Pradip Das choses to depict several layers of time and events as he has witnessed and experienced over a period of time. These are first hand lived experiences sometimes or otherwise read, constructed or oral histories. He employs an array of visual symbols and metaphors that can be easily traceable and pertinent to various times and lands in history.His images are compositions that can be read to highlight a number of references, issues of human life, society and history; like the changing of complex state machinery, issues of political and cultural migration, homelessness, differences in social strata and lifestyles, or the existential issues of the human society and animals. Flowy textural patterns in the backgrounds, bright colours and the psychedelic patterns consistently suggest the ever flowing time and change in the society and human civilization. The background also serves to visually show the disillusionment caused by looking back at history and its complexities. The placement of static objects in the foreground is Pradip – 39’s unique style of emphasising by creating contrast to the flowy background. Pradip prefers natural pigments as his medium because it allows him to identify with his own cultural roots as well as an attempt at understanding the position of miniature painting today.