Pothik Chatterjee

Artist Bio

Pothik Chatterjee is a South Asian–American painter whose practice engages abstraction as a contemplative and philosophical space shaped by diasporic experience. Drawing on Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, his work explores interior states not as purely personal expressions, but as sites where cultural memory, migration, and spiritual inquiry intersect. His transnational upbringing across India, the Middle East, and Europe informs a visual language that resists fixed geographic identity.

Born in Kolkata and shaped by a transnational upbringing across Paris, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Jakarta, Chatterjee approaches painting as a process of layering—both materially and conceptually. His compositions unfold through translucent fields of color, rhythmic mark-making, and the subtle presence of gold, evoking atmospheres that oscillate between structure and dissolution. These visual languages reference not only meditative practices, but also the instability and fluidity of identity across geographies.

While rooted in abstraction, his work resists a purely formalist reading. Instead, it operates within a lineage of painters who engage the canvas as a space for metaphysical and perceptual inquiry. Chatterjee’s paintings invite sustained looking, where shifts in light, surface, and color reveal emotional and symbolic depth over time.

Central to his practice is an ongoing negotiation between visibility and interiority, particularly as it relates to queer identity within the South Asian diaspora. Rather than foregrounding narrative, these concerns are embedded within the structure of the work itself—emerging through tension, repetition, and moments of stillness.

Chatterjee’s paintings ultimately propose abstraction as a site of resonance: a space where personal and collective histories converge, and where meaning is not fixed, but continually unfolding.

His paintings employ layered acrylic surfaces and subtle gold-inflected palettes to evoke meditative, atmospheric fields that balance structure and intuition.

Chatterjee’s work is grounded in a consistent exploration of interior landscapes—what he describes as emotional and spiritual states—while also engaging broader themes of migration, cultural memory, and queer identity within the South Asian diaspora. The result is a body of work that is both শান্ত (calm, contemplative) and conceptually anchored in questions of belonging, healing, and transformation.

His paintings have been placed with over 200 collectors across the U.S. and internationally in New York, London, Dubai and Mumbai, and he has exhibited in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, including presentations at Maison 10 Gallery in Chelsea and multiple solo and group exhibitions.

Chatterjee’s practice is notable for its balance between accessibility and depth—works that resonate immediately through color and atmosphere, while sustaining longer engagement through their symbolic and cultural layering.

There is a natural alignment between his work and collectors interested in contemporary abstraction with a strong philosophical or spiritual underpinning, particularly within globally informed collections.

Shows include Artscape, the largest public art festival in the US in 2025, ‘Color Theory’ at Maison 10 in New York City in Summer 2023, Solo Show ‘Baltimore Butterfly’ at Highlandtown Gallery in Winter 2023, 10-Year Anniversary Show in Jan 2024 at Highlandtown, Creative Confluences’ South Asian Artist Exhibition at Towson University’s Asian Art Gallery in Baltimore in Fall 2022, and ‘Big Devi Energy’ in Houston in Fall 2024 and 2025, "On Balance" in Houston at Womble, Bond & Dickinson in 2026.