By: Christina Kee

Christina Kee — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 18:29:32 +0000

Intriguing. I think I take exception to what I sense is the central line of response in this review: namely that these works, which overtly operate through a visual play of disguise-and-reveal, somehow simultaneously represent a kind of artistic underhandedness in their very inception. The suggestion is that the painter engaged in “hide-and-seek” is occupying a less morally sound position then the painter just doing the “seek” part. If I’m not mistaken, Majumdar’s work has been involved with pictorial ambiguities for many years – with the shadow-like and unknowable forms that creep into being through the perception-to-paint translation. If anything, these new works, obfuscating and near-opaque as they may be, suggest a bold and paradoxically direct foray into the problems of picture-making. The works are not always immediately loveable, but they ring true from a prolific and technically adept painter who seems always, in some way, concerned with the mysteries that lie at the heart of his craft.

By: Kyle STAVER

Kyle STAVER — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:20:59 +0000

Boy oh boy. Did we go to the same exhibition? I think the inventiveness and courage it took to make paintings that fit into nothing i can recall has flown over this reviewers head. Asking this painter to do what is safe or expected is to miss what he has done. Painting from between the line of seeing and knowing..and making that unnamable place present is in my opinion the strength and brilliance of this work. Lost their punch? I couldn’t agree less. These are powerful paintings taking on something only a painter of Sangram’s calibre could handle. That’s pretty damn punchy in my book!

Comments on: Striving For Obfuscation: Sangram Majumdar’s Strange New Turn

By: Christina Kee

By: Kyle STAVER