Jagannath Paul

A leading contemporary Indian artist, Jagannath Paul is fascinated by faces. The mysterious, wistful faces of both men and women dominate his abstract figurative works, often bowing towards each other or overlapping. In his distinctive technique of combining dark charcoal outlines with selective pops of acrylic color, his original mixed media paintings blend reality and theory.

“Growing up in a rural part of West Bengal, I was fascinated by people, their faces and the emotions that they displayed. I was an observer and continue to be, and that’s the reason my paintings focus on faces. There are so many aspects in one person, and I use different colors to express that,” artist Jagannath Paul says of his work. Often, two faces—each half in a different color—appear together as a symbol of the contradictory personalities we present to ourselves and to each other.