Pradip Maitra with painting
Renowned for his emotive watercolours, senior artist Pradip Maitra unveils his latest solo exhibition, âIllusion and Reality', offering a profound meditation on the cultural and intellectual upheaval spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition is set to open at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, from 29th October to 4th November 2024.
Maitra's new series was conceived during the 2019-2020 lockdown, marked by global isolation, anxiety, and uncertainty. Like countless others, Maitra found himself confined to his home, grappling with depression and confusion. The previously comforting books underwent a metamorphosis, unsettling him as they seemed to animate and encircle him in a stark embodiment of knowledge confined and remote.
While exploring his daughter's college library later, he chanced upon a secluded section where valuable manuscripts lay abandoned, their significance fading amidst the hustle and bustle of contemporary society. Maitra's 'Book and Lock' series is founded upon this discovery, exploring the vulnerability of cultural traditions and the increasing conflict between preservation and oblivion. Maitra's works explore technology's dominance during the lockdown, using the lock as a subtle metaphor for barriers to ancestral knowledge.
Born in 1959 in West Bengal, Pradip Maitra earned his BFA from the Indian College of Art in 1984. A committed freelance artist, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, both in India and internationally. As a longstanding member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata, since 1988, his work has been displayed at prestigious institutions such as the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, the Nehru Centre, and in global cities like Bangkok and Hong Kong. Maitra's art is a part of prominent collections, including the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and the Museum of Bengal Art, Kolkata.
âIllusion and Reality' invites audiences to contemplate the delicate interplay between safeguarding our cultural legacies and the march of modernity.
