Jagannath Panda was born in Bhubaneswar, Orissa in 1970. He received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the BK College of Art & Crafts in Bhubaneswar in 1991 and then obtained a Masters in Fine Art at the MS University in Baroda in 1994, as well as a Masters in Art degree from the Royal College of Art in London in 2002. Jagannath Panda continues to explore the diversity of expressions and symbolisms possible through animal images and forms. His works explore many of our most fundamental dichotomies: Nature/Culture, Urban/Rural, Traditional/Contemporary and Figuration/Abstraction. He pictures animals at odds with the burgeoning urban environment, while their skins are partly articulated with brocade textiles, something that has become a signature material for the artist. The newest paintings envision the scenes of car crashes as they begin to revert to a natural state.