Enigmas and Landscapes With Gopal Samantray

Text by Huzan Tata

Enter the animal kingdom with the artist’s striking creations

Click on any image to view in larger gallery

Caged tigers. Iron barks in the forest. No, this isn’t a fantasy novel, but realities of our world today. Artist Gopal Samantray, a graduate of B. K. College of Arts, Odisha, illustrates the effects of an increasingly man-made world on animals and their natural homes through his many colourful canvases. Battling for the cause of animals, the artist hopes to make people wary of what rise in infrastructure does to the earth’s gorgeous fauna.

5 Questions with the artist, Gopal Samantray

Artistic Motivations: “I am always passionate about colour and my natural surroundings. I’ve travelled through many forests in Odisha. That phase of my life was instrumental in my becoming an artist.”
Inspirations: “The great painter Picasso.”
On the wall at home: “I know it’s impossible but I’d love to have a Salvador Dali painting!”
Concerns that find a place in your art: “The decreasing natural habitat and increase of man-made buildings in today’s world. My paintings show the effect of this on the animal kingdom.”
If not an artist, you would be… “a social worker.”

The Enigma of a New Landscape is on display at Art District XIII, New Delhi (Lado Sarai, Old M.B. Road) until May 31, 2016.