User:Pratuldash



Pratul Dash is born in Burla, Sambalpur, Orissa and one of the noted contemporary artists of India today. In short period, he has been able to mark his presence in the art landscape of this country. He is one of the very few artists in India who are working through multiple channels, including painting, video art, performance art, photographic art, earth art, installation, and sculpture. His solo exhibition is coming up in a major gallery in Switzerland to be inaugurated by the Director of the department of Culture of Switzerland.

He has held six solos in major art galleries of India, participated in about two dozen shows curated by noted curators of the country; he has participated in a number of major art camps and residency programs.

He is recipient of the prestigious Inlakes Foundation award for which he went to Italy for further studies in fine arts. He has travelled abroad a number of times in connection with various international events.

Pratul is widely acknowledged for raising the issue of damage we are doing to our environment, ecology, planet earth, and society at large. He is artistically concerned about the immigration of labourers to cities and the sub-human conditions of living, as the expanding cities encroach upon the surrounding green covers and eco-systems.

Present

At the moment based in suburb in Delhi, place called Indirapuram, U.P and engaged in building a body of water colour paintings, through which I want we work the notion of Painting and art for myself. Also right now, thematically my works are research based with long term engagement with my subjects. I am also reworking motifs I have frequently used as I try to distil my expression. My 2010 show at the Metropolitan Matrix, Tamarind Art gallery, NY, and Human spaces, Sara Khan Contemporary Art, Schaan, Switzerland, have been important shows in this journey.

Long Past and continuum I have been practicing and showing art for about 15 years now, working primarily on canvas and often on a very large scale. Coming from an academic background that privileges painting, I have been trying to marry traditional academic realism and my love for the narrative, with my need to expresses socio-political concerns and develops a new language which i can call my own. The 2008 Proxy Horizon, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi and 2007 Neo-Istoria, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, mark a culmination of that journey.

Near Past and continuum Since 2003 have been working with photography and video, focusing more on content and expression rather than on technology and gadgets. Somehow this fascination for the ‘low tech’ is also linked to my concerns with neo liberal urbanisation and resultant socioeconomic fall-outs of the same. Over the years I have been exploring the ‘performative video’ and for me reacting to site specificity, in the performative in camera mode have been artistically engaging. My 2007, and 2008 solo exhibitions at the Palette Art gallery, New Delhi, have been important platforms in this regard. The 2010 show New Documents- new directions in documentary photography, a show curated by Rahul Bhattacharya for Art Konsult Gallery , was also an important show in terms of my photographic practice. Currently i am experimenting with expanding my video practice to multi channel projections,and also exploring possibilities in re working, re presenting old photography.

Workshops, Residencies

My 2004 …..... Residency in Italy was a turning point in how i perceived art and art making. My workshop based (with local people around a deserted medieval monastery) became opened doors to site specific performances. It is also during the residency that I made my first video, and since then project based workshops/residencies have been an important sites