Style :
Commingling pictures and text, Sahu borrows motifs from the mass media. The black and white photographic images adopt a documentary style of address, presenting a snippet of everyday reality, such as we would be likely to find in a newspaper or magazine clipping. Yet, in Sahu’s oeuvre, this process of citation operates on multiple levels.
The artist is intensely aware of the pictorial surface of the canvas. Monochromatic pictures are contrasted with vividly painted areas and abrasions on the canvas form interesting textural motifs. However, in his work Sahu moves away from the high-modernist obsession with the formal properties of the painted surface. The paintings operate as performative gestures connecting the realms of art and society.
As such, Sahu’s painting functions as social commentary. Acutely conscious of the inherent conflicts in the urban condition, his works draw ironic, sometimes poignant, attention to its underlying brutality and cloaked hypocrisies. The crowd forms a familiar theme in his canvases. Through the depiction of its seething mass of faces, the artist analyses common human sentiments and the complicated relation between individual consciousness and collective deeds.
About the Artist & his work :
Born : 1968 in Orissa.
Education :
1993-98 – B.F.A. in Painting from Kala-Bhavana, Visva- Bharati University, Santiniketan.
1998-2000 – M.F.A. in Painting from M.S. University, Baroda.
Group Show : He has been a part of several group shows in Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Baroda during the last few years.
Award :
2001 – Gold Medal for securing 1st position in Dept. of Painting, M.S. University, Baroda.
2000 – Nasreen Mohmudi Trust Award again for securing 1st position in M.F.A. from M.S. University, Baroda.
1997 – Camlin Award for securing 1st position at B.F.A. level at Kala- Bhavana, Santiniketan.
1995 – 1st prize at the Eastern Print Biennale, by Eastern Zonal Cultural Center, Kolkata.
1996-98 – National Scholarship of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Govt. of India.
