Pratul Dash
1974
Pratul Dash’s artistic practice encompasses a symphony of media and materials focussing on the intermediality of installation, performance and video. Experimenting with various disciplines of art from painting to cinema to philosophy, Pratul’s creative pursuit is a personal contemplation of these interdisciplinary melodies. He is widely acknowledged for raising awareness on the current ecological crisis facing us at large, the displacement of labourers, their migration to cities and the subsequent subhuman conditions of their living circumstances, as expanding cities encroach upon surrounding green covers and ecosystems. The artist’s oeuvre spent in a mix of rural and urban landscapes appears rooted in a juxtaposition of the local with the universal and past with the present. This is reflected in his large-scale, intricately detailed works delving into the possibilities of the existence of varied vantage points and perspectives from which contemporary time and space can be looked at.
Pratul’s solos include ‘A Bend in the River’ with LATITUDE 28, Bikaner House, New Delhi (2023); ‘In the Twilight Zone’, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi (2018); ‘Metropolitan Matrix’, Tamarind Art Gallery, New York (2010); ‘Human Paces’, Sara Khan Contemporary Art, Schaan, Switzerland (2010); ‘Neo-Istoria’ and ‘Proxy Horizon’, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi (2007 and 2008). Select participations in curated group exhibitions comprise of India Art Fair with LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2025 & 2024); ‘VAICA 2’ curated by Bharati Kapadia, Chandita Mukherjee and Anuj Daga (2021); ‘Phantasmagoria’, LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2021); ‘City Tales: Crisis. Care. Catharsis’, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2020); ‘Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, through the eyes of Artist, ‘’BAPU’’ 150 years’, curated by Uma Nair at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2019); ‘Enactments and Each Passing Day’, an exhibition of moving images curated by Roobina Karode and Akansha Rastogi, KNMA, New Delhi (2016). Pratul’s works have been placed in several coveted collections in India and abroad which include Rai Foundation (New Delhi), Devi Art Foundation (New Delhi), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi), ITM Universe (Gwalior, M.P.), Inlaks Foundation (New Delhi), National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi), Orissa State Museum, Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi (Bhubaneswar), National Lalit Kala Akademi (New Delhi), Hindustan Lever Ltd. (India), British Council Division (New Delhi); Gandhi Smriti Darshan, Rajghat (New Delhi), and Swiss Re Art.
