Nabakishore Chanda

My childhood days were spent in rural Bengal amidst various hardships, it was a struggle to carry on my studies and so there was no question of any formal training in painting. But the resplendence of colours that life unfolds in the varied canvases of experience had entrenched a deep fascination in my mind. I was and still am enraptured with the element and primordial forces that lie nascent and unchanging even as the world around us shifts from one hue to the other. For me therefore, the figure of woman in all her splendor and subduedness has reminded the predominant influence in life as well as art-in the simple aspects of her daily life, in her raging anger and benevolence as witnessed through folk tales, mythology and other sources. The complex and gyrating lines in my paintings are a symbolic quest for this primeval force embedded in her. I have tried to capture her in various moods-of rapturous contentment or desolation, as a mother figure or as blushful maiden and so on, emphasizing in all these varying panegyrics the mystery of life that surreptitiously keeps writing its own story of creation.

Solo Exhibition:-

(1)2004Birla Academy of Art & Culture,kolkata,India
(2)2007-Samokal Art Gallery,Kolkata,India(sponsored)
(3)2008-PegasusArt Gallery,Hyderabad,India(sponsored).
(4)2010-Taj Bengal,Kolkata,India(sponsored)
(5)2010-Art Walk,Emami Chisel Art,South City Mall,Kolkata,India(sponsored).
(6)2011-Kanchan Art Gallery,Jaipur,India(sponsored).

Group Exhibition:-

1. 2003 - Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata, India.
2. 2003 - Lalit kala Academy, New Delhi, India.
3. 2005 - Chemold Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.
4. 2005-06 - Abstract Art Gallery, Bangalore, India. (sponsored)
5. 2006 - Genesis Art Gallery, Kolkata India. (sponsored)
6. 2006 - Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, India.
7. 2006 - New Times Book & Arts Shop, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
8. 2006 - Gallery 79, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
9. 2006 - Gallery 79, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
10. 2007 - Ashutosh Birth Centenary Hall, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
11. 2007 - Metropolitan Art Saloon, Kolkata, India.
12. 2007 - 25th Baisakh Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.
13. 2007 - Gallery 79, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
14. 2007 - Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, India. (sponsored)
15. 2009-Chemold Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.(sponsored by artistic impression)
16. 2009-South city Mall,Kolkata, India.(sponsored by emami chisel art & artistic impression)
17. 2011-South city Mall,Kolkata, India.(sponsored by emami chisel art & Save Academy Of Fine Arts Platform)
18. 2011-“Save Ecademy Of Fine Arts Ptatform”,Ranuchaya Mancha,Kolkata,India
19.2012-Gallery Gold,Kolkata,india

Annual Event And Workshop

1. 2003 - Rajya Charukala Parsad. W.B., India.
2. 2006 - Rajya Charukala Parsad. W.B., India.
3. 2007 - Rajya Charukala Parsad. W.B., India.
4. 2006 - Flower Show, Forest Dept., Govt. of W.B., India.
5. 2003 - Achin Patua, Street Exhibition, Kolkata, India.
6. 2006 - Ichhapur Artist Forum, WB. India.
7. 2007 - Achin Patua, Street Exhibition, Kolkata, India.
8. 2007 - Oriental Society of India Art, Kolkata, India (Guest Artist).
9. 2011-“Save Ecademy Of Fine Arts Ptatform”,Ranuchaya Mancha,Kolkata
10. 2011-“Save Ecademy Of Fine Arts Ptatform”,Ranuchaya Mancha,Kolkata

Book Cover Design And Others

1. Calcutta Tramwayman - Dr. Siddhartha Guha Roy.
2. Naljatak - Rabin Pyne.
3. 2007 - Saradiya Joka Samachar.
4. Paintings have been used in a documentary on Shakti Chattopadhyay, directed by Suranjan Roy.

Collection

Kolkata, Delhi, Alipurduar, Baroda, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Barong (Sikkim), Oman, Liverpool, Manchester, Washington,Canada.
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Bewitching lines

Nabakishore Chanda’s paintings seem to emanate from the earth itself despite the intricacy of lines that seem to dominate them. The pristine quality of the faces that emerge from the lines startle us with their freshness which reminds us of vernal showers at times. On the other hand , a sense of mystery seems to tease us out of thought as we gaze at some of the paintings, perplexed by the serpentine quality of the lines. The subdued colours evoke a sense of mellow understanding about the intriguing flow of life, its elusiveness and its beauty.

Having his roots in rural Bengal, Nabakishore understands life both in its primal and natural essence as well as the complexities that come in its way as life gathers experience and understanding.

Debdutta Gupta

Art Critic

India Today
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'VERSIFICATION OF LINE AND COLOUR'

Line is the forte of Nabakishore's paintings. They swirl, surge, intertwine, even retreat and move diagrammatically convering the pictorial space. Nabakishore lets his pen or brush move on the paper freely. The figures born out of those lines and of the exuberant colour splashes have a naive charm about them. They show faces of a next-door girl or of a folk deity and recall the images that we see in folk art of rural Bengal. In his paintings, symboils including the phallic ones create a primordial ambience. His browns and yellows, red and greens trapped in the darkness make up a rich fabric of forms.
Nabakishore is a self taught painter who teaches Bengali language and literature in a college. his knowledge of medieval Bengali poetry is simply reflected in the images that he paints. As a painter, he recreates the world of mythology and folklore in a visual language that seems unique.
Professor Sovon Som
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About The Artist

For Nabakishore Chanda, painting is the spontaneous expression of the creative impulse within him. A self trained artist, this latent ability was unleashed one fine day, when he was urged by a friend to complete a painting he was casually working on. From then on, Nabakishore began his rendition of beautiful, mythopoeic painting dominated by lines and colours.
Born in 1964 on 4th January in a remote village of West Bengal, his emergence as an artist was not very easy as from childhood itself he had to fight against tremendous financial odds. Today he is a senior lecturer in a South Kolkata college and also a renowned name in the field of painting. He has earned accolades from renowned artists and has many exhibitions to his credit. He has also designed covers of books and his work has recently been used in a documentary on Shakti Chattopadhyay.

Dr. Dola Debnath