Born in Kolkata, West Bengal. Soma complete her graduation and masters from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata in 2009.
The conviction to make an unambiguous statement about one’s roots is a trait of high creative expression. In such assertions of cultural identity, the political, economic, social, religious and personal merge seamlessly. To achieve this within the eulogized values of western contemporary art speaks volumes about the conscious articulation of a visual language that suggests a dialectical opposition of the theorization of the ‘Past’ contrasted with the ‘Modern’. Artists emerging in the 21st century have contested this relation to re-appropriate our identity through emancipatory struggle. This may be seen as a core principle of individualism which an artist like Soma Das has shown through the graphical discourse of her paintings. The private sphere where the simple virtues of the domestic have been corresponded with the public space has been drawn with a novelty evoking an unrestrained exuberance of the folk traditions. She has adopted the pictorial format of the Indian miniature traditions, but has charted a fresh course by incorporating idiomatic characteristics of her contemporary concerns. Through the elegant refinement of spatial arrangement of the figural motifs within the teeming activity of her picture space she has brought forward the narrative by the assimilation of delightful contrasts of colours and patterns. The multi-perspective format has been dealt with meticulous care rendering the surface detail and pictorial content with a kind of symbolism demonstrating a devotional attitude to the apparently mundane. Such heightened sensitivity is significant and gives an account of the richness of her language. It is an observation and application of the ‘faith’ that Soma has inherited and appropriated through her medium of choice which celebrates a simple earthiness injected with satire and wit and at times a fantasy which is infectious. This is a construct of an urban tradition where the cultural identity is strongly reinforced.
Her major solo show includes, ‘Different Facets of Life’ at Gallery Nakshatra, Kolkata in 2010.
Soma resides and works out of Kolkata.