Tserengthapa

Biography

Kurchi Dasgupta (born 1974) is an artist based in Calcutta (Kolkata), India. She currently resides in the eye of the storm i.e. Kathmandu (Nepal), and was witness to the revolutionary dethroning of the monarch and the country’s journey into democracy.

A versatile painter, writer and translator, she has a University Gold Medal under her belt (1998, Jadavpur University, Calcutta). She was the CEO of the prestigious Society For the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films (The Ray Society) for two years till 2006. She has also helmed the Lotus Print publishing house for three years.

== Artistic Approach ==

Self-taught and unchained to any dogma or group, her works are being widely appreciated wherever shown. With her beginnings etched into the medium of gouache, she is now redefining her abilities in oil and acrylic on canvas.

Her paintings are a journey into the self and its location – a crystallisation of her efforts to mine and detect the elements that structure the fundamentals of our selves beyond socio-political, and even geographical, boundaries. It is the precision of her imagery, often surreal, and the ruthlessness of her vision that are steadily propelling her into that select echelon -- of contemporary Indian thinking artists. An artist with a mind of her own, she is a rare creature, at least in the contemporary Indian art scene.

“I try and recontextualise everyday reality by drilling into the very core of the ‘sub’ or ‘Ur’ conscious. My aim is to provide the viewer/participator with a new set of tools with which s/he can interpret the world around. And within.” [edit]

Currently focussing her abilities on bringing the two disparate, yet similar, worlds of cinema and painting together – through a series on world cinema (to be shown in London, 2008).

Writings

Her major published works include the very popular “The Death Trap” (tr. from Bengali) of Sunil Gangopadhyay, brought out by Rupa & Co. (2003). “Possessions” is the translation of the award winning bengali novel by Shyamal Gangopadhyaya – “Kuberer Bishoy ashoy”. It was brought out by the Sahitya Akademi (2007), India’s National Academy of Letters. Currently, she is translating yet another award winning piece, Sandipan Chattopadhyay’s novel – “Ami o Banabihari”. [edit]

She has also published a number of short stories and written screenplays that have been filmed. [edit]

Her painting was selected by Nokia out of thousands of others and was showcased on its official website in 2007. She has also illustrated the Bengali translation (by Maitreyi Nag) of the acclaimed Daniel Pennac novel, “L’Oeil Du Loup”. [edit]

[edit] Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibition

Millennium Gallery, London, September 2008

Group Show (major)

The Bricklane Gallery, London, July 2007

[edit] Books

The Death Trap (Rupa & Co, 2003)

Possessions (Sahitya Akademi, 2007)

Nekrer Chokh (illustration) (Swarnakkhar Prakashani Pvt. Ltd, 2007)

External Links

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