India Shining - Gandhi and the laptop by Debanjan Roy

Eye catching is one way to describe Debanjan Roy’s work. An exhibit of Roy and fellow contemporary artist Hasnat Mehmood will be on display at Aicon Gallery when SAJA NYC hosts a pre-convention reception on July 9.

Roy describes his work in the Art Dubai Journal:

“India is a euphoric mix of all kinds of forces. This churn creates the strangest of combinations. In my “India Shining” series, of which this edition is a part, I try to find humor in these, often incrogous, mixes. Mahatma Gandhi, who I deeply respect, becomes a metaphor for an India of austerity that is fast disappearing. In my work he keeps running into, and adopting, the ways of the new, materialistic India. I try to convey the notion that while many of the new-fangled ways may have been alien to the old India and sit a little akwardly, that Gandhi’s India is, nonetheless, open and receptive.”

Born in 1975, Debanjan Roy completed his Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from Rabindra Bharti University, Santiniketan, in 1998, and his Master’s degree from the same institution in 2000. Amongst his group shows, the most recent are ‘Who Knew? Mr. Gandhi’ at Aicon Gallery, London, in 2008; ‘Eastern Edge’ at Aicon Gallery, New York, in 2007; ‘New Wave in Bengal Art’ at Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata, in 2005; and ‘Tale of Two Cities’ at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata and Mumbai, and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 2004. In the year 2000, Roy received the Best Sculpture Award from the West Bengal State Academy, an award he was honoured with the previous year from Rabindra Bharti University.

Original Image May by Hasnat Mehmood

For his part, Mahmood represents the present generation of Pakistani artists who have taken their training in miniature training and experimented with new contemporary forms of expression of this old art form. Born in 1978, Hasnat Mahmood holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts. His body of work includes digital imagery, scratch board drawings as well as traditional miniature rendering. He was a member of Karkhana: A Contemporary Collaboration; an exhibition showcasing a series of twelve miniature paintings created through the mutual effort of six young and acclaimed contemporary Pakistani artists. Karkhana traveled to the Aldridge Museum and then to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Hasnat lives and works in Jhelum, Pakistan.

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Reception starts at 6:30 PM. Aicon Gallery is located at 35 Great Jones Street, NYC.

SAJA thanks Nair & Co. for its generous sponsorship for this event.