Originally born in India, lives and works in New York,
California and India. Artist, Preet Srivastava
questions personal and political identity by direct
observation of human nature and form, vaticinations
are immured on canvas.
Our time finds itself steeped deep in contradiction.
While technological advances in communication have
allowed for global intimacy, we seem to have lost a
real sense of "domesticity" - a core geography and way
of life we call "home". On the one hand, we find
individual significance through group identification
with larger cultural categories such as race and
gender. On the other hand these very categories
dissolve our individualities. While international
awareness allows us to understand the depth of
systematic cultural oppression - the idea that we as a
people are less than - the political scope of
defeating western imperialism isolates us from our
individual traits. We divert our individuality to
support a wider political alliance. The result of
retiring the intimate personal for the supra-political
has been global networks along side fragmented
individualities- a dichotomy of unity and disunity
between political recognition and personal
representation.
The paintings of Preet Srivastava have been the
alliance between the political and personal. The
paintings arise from concrete problems so they reveal
their value in concrete applications.They possess a
significance greater than their origins and a
relevance wider than their original applications; It
is that desire that constitutes the primordial why.
Occurence and content stand in immediate correlation
with outer circumstance. A Figurative essence is
directly observed and transformed from oil onto
canvas. The works present a fortuitious perspective
that allows us to transcend boundaries of past,
present, and future of content of figure, herself,
and the world we live in.
The ambiguity of her art bridges the personal with the
political by allowing overlap of content necessary to
wage the war against dominant paradigms while
upholding the purity of personal identification.
Amorphous boundaries of her artistic representation
transcend the deeper mentality of cultural
assumptions, providing a complete personality which
identifies larger political struggles as well as
personal stories - an identification which the artist
herself has not fully comprehended - a spacious
definition to self that she holds sacred - an infinite
horizon of identity that Preet is simultaneously
finding as well as pursuing. It is this pursuit of
awakening that drives her, attracts the audience and
answers the contradiction of the post-discourse.
"Its about investing in something you believe in. The power of art."
Preet Srivastava's paintings exhibit an impressionistic and expressionistic abstraction of the figure. She is trained by her Father, Sargent, Frida Kahlo, Basquiat, Vaikunttam, and Brian Blood in their expression of figure, landscape and emotion. She is inspired most by her Mother.
Writing: Bernard Lonergan, Insight
Copyright 1999 by Vikas Prasad Srivastava
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Exibitions:
- Governors Island, "First Anuual Governors Island Art Fair", September 5 - October 12, 2008, Governors Island, NY
- St. Marks United Methodist Church, "JVC Jazz Festival", June 24 - August 31 2008, Harlem, NY
- Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery, "JVC Jazz Festival", June 24 - August 31 2008, Harlem, NY
- Citi Bank Financial Center, "JVC Jazz Festival", June 24 - August 31, 2008, Harlem, NY
- Clinton Hill Art Gallery, "JVC Jazz Festival", June 24 - August 31 2008, Bklyn, NY
- Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival, "preet srivastava", June 6 - 8 2008, Bklyn, NY
- Long Beach Gallery, "Tour Des Artistes 2008", July 14 - Sept 14 2008
- Vision Jazz Festival, "artist", June 10 - June 15 2008
- Bronfman Center Gallery, "Becoming", March 27 - April 18, 2008 NY, NY
- Jazz Gallery, "Eyes and Ears", solo show, October 26 - January 15, 2007, NY, NY
- Cafe India, "home", permanent artist, 3760-5 Sports Arena Blvd, San Diego, CA
- Lincoln Center, American Arts Council of NYC, November 2007, NY, NY
- White Space, 11/11/2006, "Artist", Bklyn, NY
- Chelsea Museum, "Artists Talk On Art", 11/13/2006, NY, NY
- Zito Gallery, group show - 04/06, Manhattan, NY
- "Clifton Faust", group show - 04/06, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY, NY
- Westbeth Gallery, "mixed media", group show - 02/06, curated by Arnold Wechsler, NY, NY
- Roger Lewis King Gallery, "valentines", group show - 02/06, San Diego, CA
- Fathom Creations Gallery, group show - 01/06, La Jolla, CA
- Voyer "Intellectual Property", solo show - 11/05/05, NY, NY
- Zebulon : "Live painting", group show - 10/13/05, Bklyn, NY
- qp studio "black white and colour", curated group show - 07/23/05, Bklyn, NY
- Galoka Gallery, "Tsunami Aid", currated group show - 01/15/05, La Jolla, CA
- Scopello Fine Art Gallery, "preet srivastava", solo show - 03/26/04, Bklyn, NY
- Williamsburg Figured, group show - 06/03, Bklyn, NY
- Galoka Gallery, group show - 01/1999 - 03/2005, La Jolla, CA
- Academy of Art, group show - 1998 - 1999, San Francisco, CA
- City College of San Francisco, group show - 1999, San Francisco, CA
Art Director Experience:
Galoka Gallery, 2000 – Present, La Jolla, California
Manager and co-owner of La Jolla’s premier fine art gallery
focusing on emerging contemporary artists.
As co-owner I was responsible designing the business plan,
establishing the conceptual theme and supervising progress.
Directed the gallery from New York in terms of contacting artists,
viewing artwork, and supervising sales and commissions, as well as,
consult the business as a whole.
Specific contributions include (but not limited to):
- Curator
- Overseeing intern and general office administrative duties
- Staff management (hiring, training, cordination, meetings)
- Inventory (setting up vendors, checking invoices)
- Established gallery education center, fine art teacher
and coordinator, "Open Art Studio"
- Appraising Paintings
- Managing gallery accounts (including budgeting), invoicing and
financial reports
- Maintaining inventory and client databases
- Sustaining client and media relations (interviews, appointments,
phone calls, contact point)
- Complete remodeling and interior design
- Installation and de-installation of all exhibitions
- Organizing opening receptions and special events
- Marketing (print ads, web design, co-ordinating production of
exhibition catalogues, invitations, and market analysis)
Interior Design:
- Parrot Bay, New York,New York
Created concept and design for Restaurant and Bar
- Kyra Gaunt, 2004, New York, New York
Remodeled home
- Steve Coleman, 2003, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Remodeled home
- Webneology.com, 2003, San Diego, California
Created concept and physical structure of home/office
atmosphere for Webneology.com, a web design company
- Galoka Gallery, 2000 – Present, La Jolla, California
Created concept and design of the Jolla’s premier fine art gallery
focusing on emerging contemporary artists.
- Cafe India Art Exhibit, 2001 – Present, San Diego, California
Created concept and design for a popular cafe.
- Janet Hartman, 2001 – 2002, La Jolla, California
Created the interior design for international meetinghouse.
Teaching:
- April 2008
Teaching Artist for Museum of the City of New York.
New York, New York
- July 2008 - present
Guest Teaching Artist for PS 257
Brooklyn, New York
- September 2007 - present
Teaching Artist for American, African Native American, Latin and Indian Studies.
Symphony Space, Curriculum Arts Project.
Manhattan, New York
- September 2007
Teaching Artist for Danny and Russell Simmons-Rush Arts and Resource Center.
Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York
- 1998 - Present
Coordinator and community Fine Art Teacher figure,
landscape and stillife painting (oil). “qp Open Art Studio”
Brooklyn, New York / San Diego, California / Rajastan, India
- 03/15 - 03/18/2006
Guest Teaching Artist/ Figure Painting
Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, California
- 2003 - 2005
Guest Teaching Artist/ Abstract Watercolour
Painting
P.S. 189, Manhattan, New York
- April 15 2003
Demonstration of the improvisational nature of music
with the improvisational nature of painting.
Art Education New York University, New York
- 2000 – 2003
Annual Lectures: regarding modern and contemporary
Indian Art
University of California San Diego, San Diego, California
Education:
- Academy of Art San Francisco, 1999, San Francisco, California
- University of Redlands, 1994, BS Biology, Redlands, California
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