Biography
Debjani was born in Kolkata, India and completed her Masters in Business Management at Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi , India . She started her career as a financial analyst in New Delhi. She later moved into the field of art in the year 2007 and completed MA Fine Arts at the Open College of the Arts, UK. She is a multidisciplinary artist and expresses herself through sculpture(ceramics,paper), illustration, papercuts and printmaking. Working with her hands fascinates her and she prefers tactile, labour-intensive, process-oriented methods of creating. She is a visual storyteller and loves stories with a certain element of surprise. She had her first solo exhibition "Spindle Shuttle Needle" in Tashkeel House Bastakiya in 2011. Her second solo exhibition “Seeing the Invisible” was held in 2014 in Centre Franco Omanais, Muscat and her third solo exhibition “Telling Tales” was held in Tashkeel Gallery in 2018. Her fourth solo exhibition” Dreams within Dreams” was held in the Foundry Dubai 2022. She has illustrated two childrens' books "World Tales "a book of folk tales written by the students of Dubai International Academy (2009 ) and "A Magic Place" a book of short stories used by middle school children in India (2010).
Artist Statement
I am a visual storyteller driven by narrative impulses found within legend and folklore. Prompted by my curiosity, I explore what could lay beneath the surface and the unseen. Only a ghost of the original version, vaguely familiar yet unrecognisable, remains in my interpretation of each epic tale. As I give focus to peripheral characters and transient moments, my interventions become contemporary re-imaginings where the ambiguous, unreliable, skewed and incomplete are conveyed through a subverted, emblematic language. Akin to the ‘exquisite corpses’ genre, multiple tales entwine in ever-changing sequences (within which I occasionally impose myself); each a figurative vignette drawn from muffled memories, unremembered but not forgotten dreams that flout the laws of plausibility and possess a twisted chronology. I am inclined towards the linking of seemingly unconnected realities, placing them in surrealist settings in the spirit of Lautréamont’s famous metaphor “beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.” I take everyday objects and playfully alter them to generate bizarre juxtapositions that subtly prompts the viewer to question his own eyes or, at the very least, shift perspective.
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My work is fragile and intricate with notions of both tenderness and unease – perceived so beautiful that the viewer is instinctively drawn in. Once trapped inside like an insect in a Venus flytrap, I invite the viewer into intimate, innocuous-looking spaces to play games, prompting a sense of discomfort as if witnessing an unsettling dream from which one cannot awaken.
CV
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Education:
1986-1989
B Com Honours, Delhi University, New Delhi, India
1990-1992
BA Finance, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India
2013-2016
MA Fine Arts at the Open College of the Arts,University for the Creative Arts, UK, Merit Holder
Exhibitions Participated in
2024
"Immortal Tales, Fantastical Fables" , Solo Exhibition, Threshold Gallery, New Delhi, March 2024
"From Kalila wa Dimna to La Fontaine , Travelling through Fables," Group Exhibition, The Louvre Abu Dhabi, March 2024
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2023
"Myth Making & Divine Animals" , Group Show, Threshold Gallery, New Delhi, March 2023
Mumbai Art Fair represented by Gallery Threshold , October 2023
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2022
“The Philosophy of Food” , Group show, Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai , March 2022
“Sikka Art Festival”, Contemporary Art from Oman, Matti Servio Gallery, Group Show March 2022
Scambio Art Residency at Cassadelacapra in Mergozzo Italy, May 2022
“Made in Tashkee 2022, Group exhibition at Tashkeel Art Gallery, Dubai, June 2022
“Dreams within Dreams” solo exhibition at Foundry Gallery 5, Dubai, September 2022
2021
“Omuma” , Group show, Fikra Gallery, Muscat, March 2021
“Made in Tashkeel” Group Show, Tashkeel Gallery Dubai July 2021
“Name Place Animal Thing” curated a sketchbook exhibition with 30 artists at Fikra Gallery, Muscat, October 2021
Al Murrabba art festival organized by Ajman Tourism , UAE, October 2021
2020
“Plastic” Group show , Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai, March 2020
“Covid Conversations”, Group Show, Tashkeel Gallery Dubai, November 2020
2019:
Oman International Art Fair , Oman Exhibition and Convention Centre, March 2019
“Telling Tales “Two person exhibition, Stal Gallery Muscat, April 2019
“ Confluence” exhibition of reputed artists from India and Oman organized by the Indian Embassy in Oman at the Oman Society for Fine Arts , September 2019
2018
“Telling Tales” solo exhibition , Tashkeel Gallery, September 2018
2017
“Portraits” Group Exhibition at Stal Gallery, Muscat, October 2017
2016
"Connectivity",Group Exhibition, Tashkeel,Dubai,UAE, March 2016
"Booked", Group Exhibition, Art Centrix Gallery, New Delhi, India, April 2016
MA Degree Show XI , Civic Gallery, Barnsley, UK , June 2016
“The Seeker and the Sought” Art Centrix Gallery, New Delhi, November 2016
2015
"Nectar in a Sieve",Two person exhibition, Gallery Sarah, Muscat, January 2015
Sikka Art Fair, Design House, Illustration chosen in magazine "Fade Away and Illustrate", March 2015
"Shadows of the Wind", Installation in Bait Muzna Gallery, May 2015
"Made in Tashkeel 2015", Group exhibition in Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE, May 2015
"Games People Play",First Triannual Print Show,Museum of CAA, Hang Zhou,China, September 2015
"Black & White"Art Centrix Gallery, Group show,New Delhi, India, Muscat,October 2015
Small Works Exhibition",Group show, Omani Society for Fine Arts, Muscat,October 2015
25th Annual Exhibition:Omani Society for Fine Arts, Muscat, November 2015
"The I Within", Art Centrix Gallery, Group Show, New Delhi, India, December 2015
2014
"Art 100x100" Group Exhibition,Bait Zubair Museum, Muscat, February 2014
"Its All Square",Group Illustration Exhibition, JamJar Gallery, Dubai, April 2014
"Butterflies in my Stomach", Three Person Exhibition, XVA Gallery, May 2014
"Seeing the Invisible" Solo Exhibition, Centre Franco Omanais, Muscat, November 2014
2013
" Chess "Book Exchange,Chaap Foundation,Baroda, January 2013
"Wild Things"Group Illustration Exhibition ,FNDesign Studios, Dubai, February 2013
"Paper" Group Exhibition ,XVA Gallery,DIFC,Dubai, February 2013
"Metamorphosis",Group Exhibition,Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai,March 2013
"The Infusion of Impossible Things",three person Exhibition, XVA Hotel, Al Fahidi District, Dubai,March 2013
Art4Sight 2013, Christies Auction for Noor Foundation, Dubai, April 2013
2012
"Mawtini"Group Exhibition , Tashkeel Gallery ,Dubai , March 2012
"To the Moon"Group Exhibition, XVA Gallery, Dubai , March 2012
"Made in Tashkeel 2012" Group Exhibition ,Tashkeel Gallery,Dubai , May 2012
"Making Marks" Postcard Print Exchange,Print Making Centre, New Jersey, July 2012
Wall Mural , Ghalyas Museum of Modern Art ,Muscat , November 2012
22nd Annual Exhibition ,Omani Society of Fine Arts , Muscat, December 2012
2011
“Guess the Artist”, Group Exhibition, Ghaf Gallery, Abu Dhabi , February 2011
"Noun al Neswa ", Group Exhibition, Marsam Matar Gallery, Dubai,February 2011
“As the Saying Goes” Group Exhibition, Tashkeel Gallery ,Dubai,March 2011
“Three Keys” , Group Exhibition of Illustrations, AUD ,Dubai, March 2011
"Spindle Shuttle Needle"-:Solo Exhibition, Tashkeel House, Al Fahidi District, Dubai
May 2011
"Made in Tashkeel 2011"-:Group Exhibition, Tashkeel Gallery ,Dubai May 2011
2010
"Creative Fund Raiser Plush Toy Project", Group Exhibition,Nishant House ,Al Fahidi District,Dubai, –March 2010
"Exhibition and Sale of Prints ", DUCTAC ,Dubai, May 2010
"Mega Toy Exhibition "Group Exhibition,DIFC ,Dubai, May 2010
"Made in Tashkeel 2010",Group Exhibition, Dubai, June 2010
"Express yourself in 30x30 " Group Exhibition,Ghaf Gallery, Abu Dhabi, June 2010
"Print Exchange",The Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn Art Library, New York,July 2010
2009
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“Kaliedoscope’ Group Exhibition by Indian and Emirati artists in Dubai, organized by the Indian Embassy , Dubai Ladies Club , January 2009
“Silent Conversations”,Group Exhibition,Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai ,March 2009
“Made in Tashkeel 2009”,Group Exhibition,Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai, June 2009
“Art Oasis 2009” Group Exhibition on sustainability organized by JamJar , Eye of Horus, Wafi Mall, Dubai, July 2009
"Night of 1000 Drawings"-:Fund raiser for Palestenian Childrens' Relief Fund ,Art Sawa, Dubai ,November 2009
"Assumptions"-,Group Exhibition,, Zayed University Dubai, December, 2009
"0.06 &2 mm diameter" ,Group Exhibition, Zayed University, Dubai, December, 2009
2008
Dubai Artist Residency Programme by the Dubai Cultural Council: Was a resident artist at the Dubai Creek Avenue from 24th January 2008-24th February 2008. Works generated were exhibited by the council in a Group Exhibition, March 2008 ,Al Fahidi District Creek Art Fair 20, Dubai.
“Vibrations Within” Group Exhibition,Tashkeel Gallery, Dubai, March 2008
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