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This doodle artist from Gauhati has become a well-known name in the community
Updated On: 28 July, 2023 12:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Tanishka D’Lyma
Santanu Hazarika | Artist | From a Gauhati boy who used doodling as an outlet for expression to being a well-known name in the community with a gallery exhibition, brand work and albums covers, life has come full circle for the gifted artist
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Santanu Hazarika at the paint and sketch corner of his studio. Pic/Ashish Raje
Opportunity comes to those who are prepared to receive it; and it seems as if visual artist Santanu Hazarika had been working towards the career he has created for himself in Mumbai since he was a child in Gauhati, Assam, doodling comic book characters and selling his sketches to friends. Art was not only an outlet and way to process the worries of a young boy, and the violence and hardships he encountered as a teen including racism when studying mechanical engineering in Chennai; but doodling for all those years prepared him for 2014’s Red Bull World Doodle Art in Cape Town, South Africa, where he became the international contest’s very first champion. “That tipped my whole career. A little bit of appreciation can go a long way. Before that, it was ingrained in my head that art was not a career, only a hobby,” he tells us when we drop by his Versova-based work studio.
After winning the international doodle art championship, Hazarika decided to head to Delhi before making his way to Mumbai in 2020. Relatively unknown in art circles and looking to build his network, he began carving out a career. He explains, “I was the new age contemporary Northeastern artist and I had to prove that art could be a career for me and for other kids from the Northeast.” In 2017, Hazarika co-founded Gauhati Art Project, an urban arts collective based in the region that aims to nurture a community of artists. Alongside, his work for brands, musicians, and organisations ensured his career in Delhi took off. But soon, Mumbai beckoned.
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