Sripriya Mozumdar
India
I am an ex-marketing professional turned self-taught artist. The beauty of the commonplace is forefront in my art. In a world that places a premium on 'instant, digital and virtual'; my art is 'slow, hand-made and purist'.
It focuses on the pure joy of being, of the need to pause, reflect and undertake an inward journey into the infinitesimal. Whether in oils or in my charcoal-graphite drawings, I think of myself as a chronicler of our lives and times. And as a photo-realist, a painter of life.
The focus of my work in oils is still life. Still life, I believe, speaks the hidden language of human artifacts. Each object in a still life painting represents the human world behind that object – from the hand that made it, to the one that owned it, to the cultural associations, personal memories and emotions attached to its use. Through my choice of objects and settings, my still life paintings stage that alternate reality – a silent representative of culture, people and symbology. My oil paintings are as much influenced by the art and time-honored techniques of the European masters as by my heritage and outlook. Each of my oil paintings are built over multiple detailed layers that can consume anywhere upwards of 200 work hours.
My current work diverges into two narratives, both held together by the language of still life. The first (and ongoing larger series) is titled ‘Pitara – my Indian treasure trove’ and showcases my Indian heritage through the lens of Flemish still life using objects that hold ingrained cultural meanings and associations for me as an Indian.
The second series (just begun) is titled ‘Still Commentaries’ and the first painting in this series ‘Homosapien’ stands witness to our exploding crisis of resource use and exploitation - plastics primarily, but also that of water. Here, a rising graph of water glasses in different materials mimics the well known graph of human evolution.
Shows:
- Evocative Objects: Still Life – group show with Kalakriti Art Gallery - April 2022
- IGOR (International Guild of Realism) Spring Salon Online Exhibition - March 2021
- IGOR Spring Salon Online Exhibition - March 2020
- 102nd All India Annual Art Exhibition - Art Society of India - February 2020
- IGOR Winter Salon Online Exhibition - March 2019
- 101st All India Annual Art Exhibition - Art Society of India - March 2019
- 126th All India Annual Art Exhibition - Bombay Art Society - Feb 2018
- The Affordable Art Fair Singapore - April 2016
- India Art Festival, New Delhi - January 2016
- 123rd All India Annual Art Exhibition - Bombay Art Society - Feb 2015
Awards:
- Finalist in 5th Boynes Emerging Artist Award - Dec 2021
- Bronze Award in Realism 2021 by Camelback Gallery
- Mumbai City Award in Drawing - Kalanand Art Contest 2019
- Maharashtra State Award in Painting - Kalanand Art Contest 2018
- Maharashtra State Award in Drawing - Kalanand Art Contest 2018
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
