Samanta was born in 1973 and completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Kalabhawan, Shantiniketan, in 1996. He is the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award, New York, in 2003. The objects he uses the most often — maps and clocks, books, keys and locks — tantalize the viewer with evocations of space, time memories and secrets, but the form and function of these objects no longer conform to the expectations of habit and memory.The artist lives and works in Delhi.

For this work, he uses fragile rice paper and gouache, materials that bear traces of their history in Shantiniketan and in the work of Abanindranath Tagore. He uses pigment instinctively for its potential to render visual poetry. Working on more than one painting at a time, he creates layers of colour.Tanmoy Samanta’s paintings speak a language that is deceptively simple at a superficial interpretation, but become increasingly complex, sometimes even profound, as one engages in a deeper conversation with them.