© Tanmay Santra
Prof. Tanmay Santra is one of the four artists who chose this edition. He studied botany before he turned to art. His work, he says, combines looking with listening.
© Tanmay Santra
In his own words
He was born in West Bengal in 1969. He studied botany, zoology and physiology first and finished a BSc at the University of Calcutta in 1991.
Then he turned to art: a BVA from the Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship, Kolkata, in 1999 and an MFA in painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, in 2002.
He held a Junior Fellowship from the Government of India from 2002 to 2004. In 2007 he joined the University of Hyderabad, where he teaches students of the postgraduate programme.
Solo shows: Inheriting the Earth, Santiniketan Society of Visual Art and Design, 2012 · Domicile-Domain-Dominion: Tales of a Changing Land, Goethe-Zentrum, Hyderabad, 2012.
Recent group shows: Nothing Arrives Unchanged, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, 2026 · Mapping Periphery and Centre, Bengaluru, 2026 · Origin Story 0.2, Sameksha Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2026 · Barren-scape, Maya Art Space, Kolkata, 2025.
The practice
“My current artistic engagement reflects my intense urge that combine looking with listening.”
“The objects come from the way I converse with the places and spaces around me and connect with my everydayness. They also revolve around metaphors, dream, and theatricality of life.”
© Tanmay Santra
© Tanmay Santra
He talks to the places around him and the work is what they say back. The numbers in his titles show that he works in series, coming back to an idea again and again.
At his table
© Tanmay Santra
He draws on the folding pages of a new book, then on the postcards. “An accordion book is in progress,” he says.
Inside the show
Nothing Arrives Unchanged hung at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad. The show was curated by Satyajit Dave.
The name of the show fits him. Whatever passes from a place to the artist or from a sound to a picture, does not arrive the same. The watercolours hang on the wall; the small terracottas sit on shelves below them, like notes under a line of music.
To young artists, from the panel
“Before sending, all aspiring young artists must check the quality of documenting the work; and of course, another final check: are ‘they’ ready now to be shared with the larger audience?”
“Only text, only narratives cannot support a weak work,” he says.
On a panel, the photograph is the work, at least at first. A watercolour shot under a yellow bulb or a drawing cut off at the edge, is judged as it looks. Small, quiet work is what bad photographs lose first.
The second check is harder. ‘They’ can mean the works or the artists themselves. Both are worth asking about.
Next Monday in The Long View: Prof. Satadru Sovan Banduri.
Prof. Tanmay Santra
Instagram @tanmaysantra.ts
Read Issue Three, with all seventeen films →
More about Tanmay →
Next in Issue Three
The Studio · PrintmakingA place stays withinUttam Prajapat4 min readThe Raconteur is free for every reader and every artist. If you would like to help, you can give to Kalyani Kalakriti Foundation.
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