“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series focused on five artists who have our attention. Utilizing our art expertise and Artsy data, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.
Srijon Chowdhury
B. 1987, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
A giant, gaping mouth is the anchor of “Tapestry,” Srijon Chowdhury’s debut solo exhibition with New York gallery P·P·O·W. Painted across five linen panels that together take up some 30 feet of wall space, its meaty, sprawling lips open onto a scarlet inferno filled with cavorting skeletal figures. The monumental work, Mouth (Divine Dance) (2022), elicits fear in multiple forms: of damnation, yes, but also the day-to-day horrors of being alive in a human body.
Chowdhury’s paintings are striking and dense, laden with references to art history and the artist’s own past work. He frequently paints the body, rendering skin in sinewy swirls. These images are sometimes visceral but also harness moments of tenderness, rest, and natural wonder. For instance, one memorable work in “Tapestry” features an inflamed eye in which the iris is replaced by a tondo of childbirth. In short, the paintings reflect the messy breadth of human experience.
An MFA graduate of the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Chowdhury has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Foxy Production in New York, Anat Ebgi in Los Angeles, and others. He is represented by P·P·O·W, and runs the exhibition space Chicken Coop Contemporary in Portland, Oregon.