In his recent work Rathin Kanji addresses the world-wide upsurge in terrorism and insurgency movements since the turn of the century and the socio-psychological effects of such on our increasingly globalized community. Using media images of armed conflict and its after-effects combined with language and rhetoric, the artist assembles statements in the form of visual puzzles for us to decode and interpret. Through this process, Kanji also seeks to explore the complex interplay between ongoing inequalities in the distribution of wealth between states and peoples as well as their increased economic interdependence on one another in an era of rapid globalization. Terrorism at the state or governmental level as a reaction to these issues and the effects of such on both a local and international community is a further major theme examined in these works.

As Kanji states, "Recent changes in the global economy, the increase of radical political ideologists and the increase of anti-state terrorism are all reasons for an increased rounding up of suspects. The intention of my recent work is to help build up our mental strength to combat these feelings of fear; feelings that arise out of uncertainty for our lives due to a rapid increase in terror all over the world. Through my painting, installation and video I have tried to address and reveal these crucial issues to the viewer."

The pictorial language of Rathin Kanji's canvases and installations owes little or nothing to the conventions of Indian art. Rather, he adopts a western idiom out of modernist abstract painting, drawing inspiration from artists such as Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. He strives for and achieves a pictorial language that will support a contemporary socio-political perspective but this is as far as one can get from social realism. His style is cool and incisive – even surgical, but his message is hot, and somewhat urgent.

Rathin Kanji was born in Kolkata, India in 1970. He received his Post Graduate in Painting from Kala Bhavan Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, India in 2002. He was a Visiting Research Fellow (Fulbright Scholar) at the School of Art and Design, University of Michigan in 2003/04. Kanji has had solo exhibitions in Munich, Turkey, Dubai, Bangkok and throughout India. This is the artist's first solo show in New York.