Anandajit Ray

Anandajit Ray was born in 1965 in Calcutta. He completed his BFA in 1989 and MFA in Painting in 1991, both at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. 

Ray’s works follow a controlled format and explore diverse genres – from the Indian miniature tradition to the modern comic strip. He laboriously creates this hybrid form, ultimately touching on adolescent interests: avenues of escape from a potentially dreary reality, and desires which materialise through popular media. He simultaneously explores the mundane, phantasmal, the ridiculous, and the horrific. Calling himself a ‘surface painter,’ Ray subscribes to a position withdrawn from judgement. As a result, he is able to transform scenes of illogical violence into decorative detailing, which creates a sense of acceptance. 

Largely inspired by the naturalist style of George Stubbs and Mughal painter Mansur, as well as the fantastic, monstrous imagery of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, Ray’s paintings offer a dark, grotesque world to the viewer in which the real and the unreal coexist. In some of his works, surreal beasts appear in shades of blue and grey, while others explode in fiery oranges and reds. His paintings are populated by Inanimate objects, pop art images, and flora and fauna, combining the techniques of surrealism and miniaturism. 

Ray also examines the human body as a fractured entity, dissected and transformed into hallucinatory bioscapes with disembodied faces, noses, eyes, limbs, and shoes. The final effect is unnerving and discomfiting but glowing from within with a vivid imagination and sharp sense of black humour. 

Ray has held solo exhibitions as well as participated in group shows, both in India and internationally. He was the recipient of the 1991 Elizabeth Greenshields Grant from Canada, and in 2000, he received the Sanskriti Award. Ray was also nominated for the Sotheby’s Award. He has also illustrated a book of short stories by Bengali author Bonophool, titled ‘Wildfire’. Ray lives and works in Baroda.