One of the most original and outstanding painters of contemporary India, Prokash Karmakar confirms in his works the rich inheritance of Indian art and the dynamic spirit of the modern age. Born in Calcutta in 1933 he has lived through wars, famine, communal riots, and partition, and his powerful brush has caught the anguished search of his age for meaning and direction in bold lines and rich colour. His magnificent distortions offer a profound insight into the hidden matrix of experience. Prokash’s father Prohlad Karmakar, a pioneer of modern printing in India, died early leaving Prokash to fend for himself. Prokash had a hard life in his boyhood and youth – he found shelter in station platforms, city parks, brothels and pavements – and all this experience enriched his creative imagination. In spirit he remain a bohemian whose head is warms and generous but whose head in unbowed to any authority. In 1968 Prokash get an Academy Award of a Fellowship which took him to Paris to study the Master Painters Creations and other great country of artistic activity in Europe. He gradually achieved in his style a rich and original aesthetic fusion from Eastern and Western art while retaining in every on his strokes the authentic stamp of his individuality. He has exhibited in innumerable solo and group shows. His paintings have been acquired for their collection by the Modern Art Gallery, New Delhi, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, Allahavad Museum, Allahabad, U.P., Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow, U.P., Art Heritage of India, New Delhi, and by many governments and private collections throughout the world. He is one of the most powerful artist in India. His landscapes are unparalleled. It has the true essence of India, and … at the same time very modern. His figures his lines, bold distortions are simply magnificent. He himself is now an Institution and many young contemporary painters are following his path.

• 1953 Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata

• 2008 Hues of Bengal, Gallert G and Janus Art Gallery
• 2008 Art from Bengal, Art Elements Gallery, New Delhi
• 2007 Signature Images, Gallery Kolkata, Kolkata
• 2007 Uninterrupted Journeys, Nitanjali Art Gallery, New Delhi
• 2007 Tales of Textures, Art Elements Gallery, New Delhi
• 2006 Drawing Show an Act of Art II, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2006 Frames and Beyond, Nehru Centre, Mumbai
• 2006 Spectra, Gallerie Zen, Bangalore

• 2000 Abinendra Puraskar Award
• 1976 Biria Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
• 1970 Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata
• 1969-70 Fellowship for Study in France
• 1968,65,57 National Art Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi"