Akara Art

JAGANNATH PANDA

Akara Contemporary

Jagannath Panda completed his BFA from B.K. College of Art & Craft, Bhubaneswar in 1991 and MFA from M.S. University, Baroda in 1994. He completed MFA in Sculpture from Royal College of Arts London in 2002. Panda's paintings and sculptures are often inspired by Orissa, his native state in India, and his current home outside New Delhi. Using mixed-media paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Panda mixes mythology with reality, and motifs from traditional Indian art with images from Western and Indian contemporary culture, to create detailed depictions of rampant urbanisation that pulses through the country.

His signature technique is to incorporate traditional brocade fabrics into the surfaces, often becoming the skins of beasts, the bark of trees, or the garments of mythological figures. Jagannath Panda also often uses animal forms in his paintings. Panda’s animals function as icons. Panda is also highly influenced by the mythological tales of India.

In 1990 he won the Lalit Kala Akademi Award and was also honoured with the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award, New Delhi, in 1996. The artist lives and works in New Delhi.