Graduated from the Indian College of Art, Calcutta Jaya Ganguly (b. 1958) excels in figurative expressions. Her works depict dream images which are highly mysterious and vibrant in colour. The figures are surreal, distorted and express a certain torment and inner angst. Jaya does not like verbalizing her creative exercise. In her early creative expressions of the nineteen eighties she was greatly inspired by the creative and destructive forces of Goddess Kali and her world around the area, Kalighat. She spent much of her childhood in the vicinity of the famous Kali Temple of Kolkata.

“In my early paintings the Mother Kali would appear sometimes as a person or the most ordinary women would resemble HER – and even parody HER divine gestures” says Jaya.