Joy Paul

I was born in 1967 and live and work in Kolkata, India. In 1995, I got Diploma in Applied Art from The Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. I worked as a professional portrait painter and illustrator for many years.

A growing urge to express my own feelings and thoughts about what is happening inside and around me, prompted me to become a full time independent artist and eventually I left my last regular job in 2008.

This urge and my fascination for human figure, face and nature are constant factors in my work. However, the way in which I express myself is always evolving.

In my formative period I worked in different styles, but mainly conceptualized my idea and then started to work. During this time, I was more than ever before eagerly appreciating different modern and contemporary art. Movements like CoBrA, Abstract Expressionism, The New York School and artists like Karel Appel. Lucebert, Willem de Kooning, Georg Baselitz and many more inspired my work enormously. In this time I also felt very much connected to my Indian origin and inspired by the ancient Indian art and crafts dating from the Indus Valley Civilization. Gradually my style evolved from realistic/semi-realistic to a more free and expressionistic one.

There...

My work has been exhibited in India, Hong Kong and the United States.