Rabin Mondal was born in 1932, in Kolkata, in a poor government official`s family. He graduated with Diploma in Fine Arts from the Vidyasagar Art School. His works exploit the grotesque to express inner turmoil and human struggles. His feeling towards his environment has been rather queer. Perhaps the milieu in which he spent his formative years has something to do with it. Mondal grew up in a populous industrial town of Howrah, near Kolkata. “I know the big city across the Ganga intimately,” he says. “In the dark alleys of the city, nightmarish poverty stared one in the face. I saw the poorest of the poor and the affluent live within a stone throw away form each other. It was tragic to watch some lying untreated, while those who could afford it continued to spend money on even a dead man.”

Mondal has also been quite active with the avant-garde artist`s organizations in the city. He was a Lalit Kala Akademi member from 1979-1982 that has also published a book of his drawings. It has taken Rabin Mondal decades to emerge as one of India`s leading modern painters. Almost 70 years old now, he is based in Howrah, Kolkata, from where he began his artistic career.