Parag (b. 1987) holds an M.V.A. (Art History and Aesthetics) from M.S. University, Baroda, India. He finished his B.F.A. (Painting) in 2008 from Govt. Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya Nagpur University, Nagpur (Maharashtra) India. His selected performances include Being the Other, KHOJ International Artist Association, Delhi, AHAMBRAHMASMI at various locations including Delhi, Nagpur and Baroda. He has participated in various group exhibitions including Rethinking the Regional, Curated by Manisha Patil, NGMA, Mumbai, Indian Contemporary Art, space 1858, Chicago, USA, PARADIGMS & PERSPECTIVE group shows titled, Indigo blue art gallery, Singapore amongst others. In 2016 Parag was part of two group shows titled TIME and Portraits of the Self, at Gallery Maskara, Mumbai, India. He was also part of Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Korea and The Young Subcontinent, Serendipity Arts, Goa. In 2018 Parag was part of the Pepper House residency in conjunction with Kochi Muziris Biennale. In 2019 he was in residence at the Kunstdepot Foundation, Goschenen, Switzerland.
The artist lives and works in Baroda.
Parag’s practice explores the crossings and connections between painting and performance. Often mistaken for photographs. His troubling paintings of faces and bare bodies design a carefully linked chain on the compelling ways that material, subject, and sensibility can align on canvas. His work portrays the human body as an experience in its ordinary and imperfect self, through a seamless blend of performance and painting that is detailed to the extent that it exceeds all limitations. He is interested in painting the nude body - insofar as to expose the soul through the map of the skin. Painted in larger than life format, his portraits of male bodies draw attention to ordinary people through the choice of treatment and scale.