Raja Boro is an emerging Indian printmaker with a quiet and contemplative mind. Hailing from the high altitudes of Assam, he is one of the few artists of his generation who are fascinated by the beauty and authenticity of traditional graphic mediums, namely colour woodcut. Instead of breaking rules, he preserves the values of the rich tradition of woodcut, creating landscapes, villages, and forest scenes that reveal his love for nature. His Thoreauvian woodcuts, small in scale and rich in gradation of colour, represent nature as a source of beauty, simplicity, and peace, advocating deep spiritual engagement to grasp truths beyond materialism and social distractions.
His choice of colour woodcut as his primary medium of expression is integral to his larger aesthetic ideals. The process, involving careful planning and the application of multiple colour blocks or layers, requires the artist to be unhurried and contemplative, taking considerable time to follow each step with care. Raja Boro refrains from using contrasting colours, allowing them to mellow and produce a fine harmony, like long-chord music. Music is an appropriate metaphor for his woodcuts, as they capture the essential mood and transcend the particular natural sights they represent. The low-key, harmonious colour palette, inspired by the mountainous nature he is familiar with, places his work somewhere between Pierre Bonnard and Japanese masters such as Hiroshige.
Boro’s works, often taking the form of a series, capture a sense of journey. His most recent series, Above the Clouds (2025), was inspired by the mountainous landscape he encountered during his trip to Darjeeling. Unlike an excited tourist, he looks beyond the particular and the visually stunning, finding an equation between the beautiful and the good, between natural beauty and deeper moral and human ethical values. The works show visual detailing and mediumistic precision, as well as resonance and wonder, combining the particular with the universal.
