Charulata Prasada

Charulata Prasada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

STATEMENT

I am a self-taught Indian-born artist raised in a multicultural environment surrounded by Indian folk art. This might be why I’m drawn to folk art across cultures. I used to work on issues of intersectionality in different developing countries. While living abroad, I was influenced by the aesthetics of vernacular culture of lived beauty, such as the patterned repetition of woven baskets, painted pottery or the concentric symmetry of rice paddies, the vibrancy of everyday life and flora, and the tropical light. These influenced my use of patterns and lines and my color palette.

Living in modest conditions, and focused on my day job, I often lacked the time, space, and materials to paint. However, magazines, glue, and scissors were readily available. I was interested in deconstructing images into a multiplicity of pieces to distill color and pattern that are recast into a unified image, applying elements of folk aesthetics to the theme and narratives of my North American life and urban environment. My technique originated from fragments of time, limited space, and the rhythmic arrangement of colors and textures as they form, expressing thought and emotion.

BIO

Charulata Prasada is a self-taught, Ottawa-based artist. She was born in New Delhi, spent her early childhood years in Kanpur, India, and subsequently immigrated to Montreal, Canada. She earned degrees from McGill and York Universities. Upon completing her master’s degree, Prasada received the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) International Gender Award which took her to Southeast Asia.

Whilst she lived internationally, working on gender issues and children’s rights over a period of twenty-five years, art was always a passion and part-time activity. In 2012, on moving to Brooklyn, New York, Prasada transformed her lifelong devotion to an exclusive focus on fine art. Prasada returned to Canada in 2015. She is represented by James Rottman Fine Art in Toronto. Her work has been shown in Brooklyn, Tribeca, and Toronto and is featured in private collections in several countries. Her art practice is informed thematically and aesthetically by her varied multicultural experiences. She continues to explore themes of connection, vulnerability, strength, and resilience through her paintings and collages.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.charulataprasada.net

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