Chandra Bhattacharjee is known innovative approach to the fine arts. He graduated with first class honours from the Indian College of Art and Draughtsmanship (1986) and received a gold medal from Rabindra Bharati University for excellence in the same year. Bhattacharjee has been honoured with several awards, including the Taj Gaurav Award (2008) and the Ananya Samman from Zee News (2023). His recent accolades include the Shilpi Maha Samman from the West Bengal government (2023) and recognition as an artist in residence at Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2020.His latest solo exhibitions include The Hum of Unreasonable Silence at Art Alive Gallery, Delhi, and Dissolving the Surface at the Odisha State Museum, both in 2023. Over his career, Bhattacharjee has held 20 solo shows and participated in numerous prestigious group exhibitions, including Ekkhan: Situating the Present and the India Art Fair (2024).In addition to painting, his artistic practice incorporates photography and moving images. His works are part of notable public collections – Museum of Bengal Modern Art and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Art. Bhattacharjee continues to engage audiences with his compelling explorations of contemporary themes.
The boundaries that once contained Chandra Bhattacharjee’s thoughts have dissolved, and his work seems to breathe with a newfound freedom. His palette remains steeped in the dark, muted tones that have long characterised his work, but these colours now seem to carry a different weight. The stillness they evoke is not passive but heavy with tension, a silence that holds its breath, waiting. In this series, the cycle of violence is not just depicted—it comes alive, each element balanced on the edge of collapse. The line between aggressor and victim blurs until it disappears altogether. Is this not the landscape of the world we now inhabit, where harm and survival are no longer distinct, where violence and endurance exist in a tangled web, indistinguishable from one another? Bhattacharjee’s work forces us to confront this reality, where the cycles of destruction and survival have become one and the same.
