PRAFULLA MOHANTI

The works on display were all painted in London, where Mohanti moved in the early 1960s from rural India. Although qualified as an architect in Bombay, his opportunities in London were limited, and he faced several forms of discrimination. His degree was not recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and he was paid less than English architects doing the same work. Suffering from the racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of the 1970s and struggling with the grey landscape, he initially found life in the UK isolating. Withdrawing from architecture, he found his escape in painting, which brought to his new life the colours and joys of home.

For Mohanti painting is a form of meditation, and the efforts to control the paint’s flow can be likened to a person’s attempts to control their life. The universal symbol of the circle, a recurring form in his work, returns the artist to his childhood, when he was taught to practise the Hindu holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara as three circles. Although deeply rooted within the Indian landscape and Tantric culture, Mohanti translates these sources through the language of abstraction to produce paintings as transcendent as they are personal.

This exhibition forms part of Gallery 2, an occasional programme of exhibitions by non-represented artists at Pilar Corrias Conduit Street.