Sangram Majumdar (b. 1977) is a painter originally from Calcutta, India, living and working in Seattle, Washington. Primarily working in oil on fabric supports, Majumdar brushes, wipes, layers, scumbles and scrapes to arrive at his painted surfaces. The images are spatially dense and visually slippery. By abstracting and expanding the perimeters of perceptual painting, Majumdar has developed a pictorial vocabulary that complicates the relationship between recognition and representation. This sense of liminality pervades throughout Majumdar’s work which actively pulls from art and cultural histories, personal and symbolic imagery and mythology.
Born in Kolkata, India, Majumdar has an MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibition venues include Geary Contemporary, NY; Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, NY and Asia Society Texas Center. Selected group exhibition venues include Shoshana Wayne Gallery, LA; The Landing Gallery, LA and James Cohan Gallery, NY. Selected awards include a Mellon Faculty Fellow in Arts, NYFA Grant in Painting, Purchase Award from American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY, a MacDowell Fellowship, a residency at Yaddo, the 2009-10 Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Space Program Grant, and a MICA Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2019 he was inducted into the National Academy of Design. His work has been reviewed in Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, and Hyperallergic, among others. He has also lectured on his work at numerous institutions including Columbia University, RISD, CCA, Cranbrook School of Art, Pratt, PAFA, SUNY-Purchase, Princeton University, and the New York Studio School. Majumdar lives and works in Seattle, Washington and is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Washington.