Biography :
I, Purnaa Deb, grew up in Kolkata, India and completed my academic art education, (graduation and post-graduation degree) in Printmaking from the faculty of Visual art, Rabindra Bharati University, India. I had been awarded with Gold Medal for being First class first student in annual convocation of BFA (Bachelors of Fine Arts), 2010; and a Merit of certificate at the annual exhibition of MFA (Master of Fine Arts), 2012 from my university. In addition, I received a Fellowship in National Lalit Kala Academy by Government of Indiafor the year of 2014-2015 in Printmaking Department. On beside of participating in several group exhibitions and community based art activity, I was working as an art educator and engaged in different schools and institutions, teaching different methods of arts and creative practice using interactive communicating tools.
I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in March,2015 and started working as an intern in David Krut Projects, Johannesburg (from 2016) where I am getting the professional printmaking studio experience that elevates my overall technical knowledge indeed. Beside of that, I am also working as a part-time printmaking teacher in Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg (from 2017) where I provide basic understanding and training of different printmaking technicalities to the students. I am also continuing my studio based printmaking practice at David Krut Book Store, Parkwood and participating in several group shows and art fairs in this city.
Apart from different collections in different countries, one of my work had been featured in the comic magazine published by Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany on 2015.
STATEMENT OF THE ARTIST:
In my practice, I investigate identity through the lens of relationship between self and society. I strive to explore the interface between social, political and personal. Primarily my works are autobiographical in nature. Images in my works come from my everyday life, particularly from my experience of playing multiple roles as a daughter, wife, artist and an urban middle-class working woman. I look into all the prosaic things that we consider as significant for living, and in turn, that delineate our identity. My works are cross-pollination between these banal elements of my personal sphere and the references subtracted from larger peripheries and discourses on tradition, politics of identity, memory, nostalgia and complexities of urban life.
I fabricate edifices around banality with images, words, lines and colours enthused by events, incidents and discourses taking place in the larger context of society.
My works explore visual recollection and the imprint of memory. I find everyday experiences, relationships, and behaviors to be less than concrete and more fluid and uncertain. I indicate my assessments of certainty by using the concept of place, often a literal, physical space. Depending on the place I depict, it becomes a metaphor for comfort, tension, belonging, uneasiness, etc. The emotions that memories evoke in me, deluge my thoughts, and often transpire in my works in the form of abstract forms and images with painstakingly intricate details, lines, colours and native languages I counter in my everyday life in somewhere between Kolkata and Johannesburg.
Important shows :
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"A Tale of Quests
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"A Piece of Work”- a group exhibition of variations of the monotype process and other unique works on paper with David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, 2017
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“She: Impressions”- showcasing and celebrating Female Artists with Artist Proof Studio,2017.
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“FNB Art Fair”with Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg, 2016
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“Here Be the Dragons”group-exhibition, The Art Room, Johannesburg, 2016
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“Turbine Art Fair”with The Art Room, Johannesburg, South Africa 2016
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“Hot off the press”group-exhibition of selected artist from Artists’ Proof Studio organized by ABSA Art Gallery, Johannesburg, 2015.
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“Chitpur Revisited”- local community art project, Organized by Hamdasti and Studio 21 Kolkata, India, 2014
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47thBirla Annual exhibition, 2014
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46thBirla Annual exhibition, 2013
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“Group exhibition of painting and print making”, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata,2011