Between Presence and Erasure
At the core of my practice lies an engagement with what remains unseen yet deeply embedded in everyday life. I am drawn to the quiet presence of labour, the fragile conditions of visibility, and the subtle structures that shape how we perceive people and spaces. Much of my work emerges from observing those who exist in the margins, physically present yet socially overlooked.My philosophy is rooted in material thinking. I often work with found or contextually loaded materials like construction netting, not simply as a medium but as a metaphor. These materials carry their own histories. They conceal, protect, and divide, much as the social systems we inhabit do. Through them, I try to question what is made visible and what is deliberately obscured.There is also a persistent interest in the idea of transparency, not as clarity, but as something deceptive. What appears visible is not always fully understood. This tension between seeing and knowing forms a critical axis in my work.In many ways, my practice is less about representation and more about evocation. I am not trying to illustrate labour or social conditions directly, but to create situations where the viewer becomes aware of their own position within these layered realities. If there is a guiding principle, it is this: to make the invisible felt, and to gently disturb the comfort of looking without truly seeing.
My practice has been shaped through a sustained engagement with printmaking, pedagogy, and critical research, developed across both institutional frameworks and field experience. Born in Kharagpur, West Bengal, he encountered an early exposure to everyday visual culture, which gradually informed his artistic direction. Formal training was pursued through a BFA from Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya and an MFA from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, followed by a PhD in Fine Art from Assam University. His doctoral research, A Critical Study of Institutional Printmaking: Pedagogy and Practices in Post-Independent India, examined printmaking as both a technical and a discursive field. Within his practice, traditional printmaking processes such as etching, lithography, and serigraphy have been employed and extended into installation-based approaches, where material, site, and context are critically engaged. Projects including See-Through and Five Million Incident have been developed through research-led processes, where South Asian politics, society, and subaltern narratives are addressed through layered visual strategies. These works have been informed by fieldwork and site-specific observations rather than by isolated studio production. International exposure has been gained through residencies and exhibitions, including the Jenesys Research Residency at the Japan Foundation Tokyo Wonder Site, as well as participation in exhibitions across the USA, Japan, Bangladesh, and Denmark. Curatorial initiatives, such as the Indo–Japan Printmaking Exhibition (2025), have also been undertaken to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue within printmaking practices. Alongside studio practice, pedagogical contributions have been consistently maintained. Academic programs have been developed, workshops have been conducted, and research papers have been presented in various national and international forums. Through this interconnected approach, printmaking has been positioned not only as a medium, but as a critical framework through which contemporary social and cultural conditions are examined.”
