MUMBAI.- Sakshi presents “I Dissect Therefore I Am”, a solo show by the artist Anirban Mitra. The show opens on May 8, 2025 in conjunction with Art Night Thursday and marks Mitra’s second solo show at Sakshi Gallery.

For this body of work, Mitra takes inspiration from documenting regional science exhibitions in West Bengal, and conducting research into colonial archives of science and painting. Grounded in research and observation, Mitra's current practice examines the state’s representation of intersections between science, nature and technology.

From a conceptual perspective, Mitra has studied the history of European painting, including the Renaissance and Baroque periods to the Industrial Revolution, observing how artists have rendered human dissections and surgeries. Materially, the artist is interested in replicating historical oil painting techniques while using acrylics.

Mitra also engages with colonial histories, particularly the towns of Chandannagar (a former French colony) and Serampore (a former Danish colony), two cities that he lives between. His inquiry into these regions reflects a personal and spatial engagement with their layered colonial pasts, traces of which are evident in his paintings.

Although Mitra’s subject matter shifts, his signature style, characterised by bright colours and scroll-like canvases, remains. His layered compositions nod to popular visual culture, amalgamating everyday objects, references to folk painting traditions, and digital interfaces like Candy Crush. This incorporation of playful imagery is intentional, underscored by critical inquiries into colonial pasts and questions of consumerism.

Born in Kolkata in 1981, Mitra received his BFA and MFA from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Mitra’s works are characteristically a gleeful amalgam of folk art, television adverts and popular religious imagery, all rendered in a hyper-colour palette that borders on the psychedelic. Looking at contentious questions like globalization, post-colonialism, and commercialization, Mitra’s primary strategies for political commentary include irony and satire, which often find their outlet through the guise of pop- culture figures and religious icons.

Mitra was invited to participate in the prestigious Glenfiddich Residency in Scotland in 2009, and was awarded the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2015. He lives and works in Hooghly, West Bengal.