Sandeep Mukherjee

By: Joseph Jacobs

June 2007

Mukherjee, who lives and works in Los Angeles, does more than just paint: He also folds, creases

Sandeep Mukherjee, “Untitled,” 2006, acrylic, ink and etching on Duralene.

and etches, for his support is a matte translucent plastic-based paper called Duralene, which is pliable and can be shaped. While the folds, creases and embossing are often geometric, forming concentric circles or star-like chevrons, the abstract imagery evokes an organic world of landscape. The palette of browns, blacks and blues brings to mind earth, rocks, water and sky, while the concentric folds conjure up the sun, moon and stars. They even resemble topographic maps.

Mukherjee arrived at his technique of sculpturally manipulating his support when transferring his drawings to another support substance, pricking them and pressing a colored powder through the holes, which then traces the images on a new surface. “The transfer became the most interesting part of the process,” he says. He then began doing the same to his paintings. “The process was organic, like manipulating the skin. I then started etching lines and embossing. It was like drawing in two directions,” he says, referencing his working on the backside of the Duralene. But
the magic of these elegant, precisely drawn images is their provocative ambiguity.