Alumnus of MSU Baroda, Sumit Roy's practice is firmly rooted in the mural tradition of the art school and its concerns with the local context. Yet, he reinvents this inherited aesthetic on his canvases in a language that is boldly inspired by global, mainstream popular culture. He speaks for a generation of urban cultural practitioners who grew up in the face of globalization and corporatization. The media landscape in India changed dramatically with the opening up of the economy, and the emergence of Star TV, and MTV, who in the early years appropriated entertainment from American media for an Indian audience. Confronting the reality of an industrialized nation while occupying the Indian context, Sumit Roy juxtaposes an aspirational visual universe and the cult of global stardom with quotidian sights and attitudes from his immediate locale. The same approach extends to his music, where he uses the subversive, trans-continental form of hip hop to articulate ongoing contemporary political anxieties in India. As an artist working with sound, text and image, he is able to tap into a range of sensibilities while defying them all. 

HIGHLIGHT: I HOPE TO MATCH YOUR FURNITURE | 2018 | FIRST SOLO ART EXHIBITION

“Sumit Roy – with his millennial outlook keeping in consonance with a strong theoretical grounding from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda – has an output that is grounded in tradition but entirely contemporary in nature. A politically astute and multitalented wunderkind, his passion for art, design and rap music inform his output. I HOPE TO MATCH YOUR FURNITURE is that rare show that will see him excavate not just his artistic talent, but also his fascination with music as he engineers a rapprochement between the part and the future.”

Artist Statement

“I think of I HOPE TO MATCH YOUR FURNITURE as my attempt to bring together disparate strands of thought. My aim is to design a détente between the distinct and perhaps even discordant threads of fine art and rap, Indian and Western aesthetic sensibilities. The white cube of the gallery space is often perceived as cold and unwelcoming while rap music is often thought to be a lower art form, emerging as it did from the streets. The heart of my show will be a rap performance at the opening to set the tone for the exhibition. While the messaging is not overtly political, it is, in a sense disruptive, disturbing the current status quo and presenting a view point that is, I hope subtle but also catalyzing for an audience that would not traditionally consume the kind of art and the kind of performance I am presenting to them.” 

Portrait by Archisman Misra/@poetoftheblack

EMAIL
roy@sumitroystudio.com

EXHIBITIONS
2011. CENTURION. VISUAL ARTS GALLERY. NEW DELHI
2012. AUDI ART EXHIBITION. NEW DELHI
2013. ITALIAN EMBASSY ART AUCTION. NEW DELHI
2013. CENTURION. VISUAL ARTS GALLERY. NEW DELHI
2018. LATITUDE 28. I HOPE TO MATCH YOUR FURNITURE. VISUAL ARTS GALLERY. NEW DELHI
2018. LATITUDE 28. INDIA ART FAIR.
2018. HOMEGROWN STREET.

AWARDS
MOOD INDIGO. ‘VOGUE’ FASHION SHOW. BEST TEAM AND DESIGNER
D&AD AND KYOORIUS RED ELEPHANT