Born on November 18, 1961, at Patuli, West Bengal, Chandra Bhattacharjee graduated from the Indian College, of Art and Draughtsmanship with a first class in 1986.

Bhattacharjee was the recipient of a gold medal from Rabindra Bharati University in 1986 for excellence in fine arts. He started his career as a billboard artist and moved on to work as a graphic designer with the Economic Times before becoming a professional artist.

Bhattacharjee’s compositions are influenced by the rural and tribal associations that he had an opportunity to work with; particularly the ‘Santhal’ tribe of Calcutta. The textural quality of his paintings is strongly reminiscent of the traditional mud walls of these villages, smeared with cow-dung.

For Bhattacharjee canvas is an endless space where every living and non living entity exist in harmony. A soft palette, fine brush strokes and somewhat hazy and haunting imagery contemplative in its earthy feel, are the hall marks of his work inspired by his rural and tribal associations. Chandra has participated in over 15 solo and many more group shows and his works have been exhibited in various Indian Metros at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore as well as internationally at Seoul, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, New York, London and at Adana Biennale Turkey, Imprints-The Ueno Royal Museum Tokyo and XI Indian Triennale India.

Bhattacharjee uses cross-hatching that adds depth to his color. As he explains in an interview,” I use charcoal to make the basic line drawing and then I cover the canvas with a layer of dry pastel and water. After that, I apply several layers of extremely diluted acrylic paint. The dry pastel absorbs the superficial gloss of the acrylic and the effect is matte and well-knit. “Chandra Bhattacharjee lives and works in Kolkata.

He has been a regular at the India Art Fair, Art Chennai, and has participated in Art Singapore; A few of his group shows are Divergent Horizons, Lalit Kala, Chennai.