PATRONUS: New Works by Pappu Bardhan

4 March - 4 April 2021

 

"The sheer variety and number of flora and fauna we noticed in our city during our childhood has steadily come down with the increasing inroad of urban construction" 

Pappu Bardhan's body of works explores burgeoning cityscapes that impact dwindling flora and fauna in these times. He imagines a Patronus, a corporeal guardian, in the image of a barasingha (swamp deer), that were found in abundance at the outskirts of Kolkata- his home city, in a hope to regain the lost glory of his surroundings. Bardhan questions the ability of his patronus to exist in such destructive times to bring back the equilibrium amiss in the world. 

 

While acknowledging a variety of influences in his work, he claims that his images generally have a subconscious plane populated by elements borrowed from his real-life memories. The exhibition features paintings that are sensitive to the metropolitan way of life, with visuals of flowers, fruits and animals juxtaposed with cityscapes, a harsh reality that we live in and yet choose to ignore. Bardhan's paintings are layered with meaning which is at the fulcrum of ethereal beauty and gloom, light and dark, hope and despair, life and death, rooted in an urban dystopia.

 

Pappu Bardhan received a Bachelor of Visual Arts [painting] from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata [1999] and a post-diploma [graphics] from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara [2001]. In his recent works, he merges together the natural and the industrial to create a surreal picture of the relationship between the two. His laborious process of adding thin layers of watercolour on paper transforms his visuals into lyrical waves of colour instilling the viewers with a spiritual and peaceful silence amidst the urban chaos.

 

His recent solo exhibition ‘Patronus’ was held virtually at Anant Art gallery [2021]. His other solo presentations include Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata [2019] and Weavers Studio Centre for Arts, Kolkata [2017]. His selected group exhibitions with Anant Art include Telling Tales: A Journey into Narrative Forms, Bikaner House, New Delhi [2020], India Art Fair, New Delhi [2020] and Trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie, Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi [2019]. He has also exhibited with Art Centrix Space, New Delhi [2018]; Gallery Beyond, Mumbai [2017]; ICCR Art Gallery, Kolkata [2016]; Aakriti Art Gallery Kolkata [2010, 2008, 2007]; CIMA Art Gallery, Kolkata [2017, 2015] and Tamarind Art Gallery, New York [2007]. He has received various awards including Birla Academy Annual Exhibition in Painting [2007], and A.I.F.A.C.S Annual State Level Exhibition [2002].  

 

Pappu lives and works in Kolkata. 

 

Text@ChavviJain