Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 2010) - Twelve Gates Gallery is delighted to announce the exhibit of the work of renowned painter Prokash Karmakar. The exhibition showcases Prokash's breadth as a painter and highlights the major themes within his work and runs from March 5th through March 27th.

Prokash Karmakar was born in Calcutta, West Bengal in 1933. He grew up in a studio environment with his father, Prahlad Karmakar, a well-known and respected artist. To hone his skills, he studied at the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta, however when his parents died Prokash was forced to abandon his studies and join the army. He personally experienced the devastation of WWII, the great Bengal famine of 1943, and witnessed the holocaust of communal riots that culminated in the partition of India.

After leaving the army, Prokash returned to art and in an effort to earn a living from his work he began exhibiting in the streets. Not only did he go on to receive a scholarship to study in France, but he also received awards from the Lalit Kala Akademi, the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, and Rabindra Bharati University. He has held several exhibitions of his work in India and abroad. Collections of his work can also be found in places such as the Tata Institute of Art, Mumbai, the Lalit Kala Academy and the Modern Art Gallery in New Delhi.

Prokash's acrylic and oil paintings are, in a way, remembrances of things past. Some of them are personal, other are recollected from nightmares rather than dreams, and some are from the darkest moments of human history. He is one of the few artists in India who used everyday disorder as a vehicle to express his feelings with visionary intensity. He also paints landscapes depicting lush tropical vegetation, hills and valleys, seascapes and mangroves in all of their wild diversity. Prokash Karmakar currently resides and works in Howrah.