Jayashree Chakravarty pursued her BFA from Viswa Bharati University, Shantiniketan (1978). She obtained a Masters (Diploma) from M.S.University, Baroda (1980). She was an artist in residence at Ecole d' Art, Aix-en-Provence, France. She has been actively involved in the Indian Contemporary scenario since the 1980s.
She has had an impressive number of solo and group exhibitions in India and abroad among which are, Thoughts Ricochet, Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi (2000), Route Map of Experience, IHC Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi (2003), Stree-Paintings by Contemporary Indian Women Artists, Bodhi Art, Singapore (2004), Angkor- the silent centuries, Bodhi Art, Singapore and Delhi (2005), Towards Abstraction, Bodhi Art and Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi (2005), Paths of Progression, Bodhi Art and Saffronart (2005), Secular Practice; Recent Art from India, organized by Hoopoe Curatorial, Optica, Montreal and Vancouver, Canada (2001-02), Perspecta, organized by Galerie88 Kolkata, Sponsored by UBS, at Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London (2002) are eminent. Her works can be seen in the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and in Chandigarh Museum.
She has been honored with Bombay Art Society Award, Mumbai (1980) and Honorable Mention Award, Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1997) to name a few.
Earlier known for her highly romanticized figuration, Chakravarty’s artistic trajectory has recently turned towards abstraction, prominently translated in her use of imagery and colours. Her varied academic background has shaped her unique aesthetic style that often conceals as much as it reveals. She experiments engagingly with an exciting variety of media like rice paper, tissue and cellophane. In recent shows like Memory Record (2004), the human figure re-emerges in an androgynous form. While her translucent images suggest fluidity and transience, a profusion of intricate map-markings, railway lines, road signs, calligraphy and graffiti come together, play against each other to reconstruct the complex workings of self identification, dreams, memory, unconscious and so on. For the work she made for the group show, Angkor- the silent centuries (2005), Chakravarty superimposed several layers of forms and figures to create a dreamscape with shifting points of location. Motifs and symbols play an essential part in shaping her works. Encountering visual experiences is an integral part of her strategy as an artist.
Jayashree Chakravarty lives and works in Kolkata.