Situated within postcolonial/postmodernist paradigms, her paintings engage with a visual language rooted in an Indian vocabulary, but is predicated upon themes of more universal appeal, whether emotional or scientific.
Read MoreIncreasingly her work has moved towards mixed media series like Woman and the Elements (1993, 20 paintings that juxtapose the interactions of women and primal elements); Woman and Her Emotions (1995/96 seven paintings, each playing with a specific feeling like Lust, Frustration or Curiosity); the notion of cyclical time in Meditations on the Zodiac (1996-98, on the annual progression of months) and Time Cycles: A Book of Hours (2000, on the changing energies of a single day).
The paintings, mostly, are vibrantly coloured and layered, the mixed media allowing for both controlled and chance happenings on the surface. Her basic art training and fine art degree was in India, but having lived and worked as an artist and arts writer for the past 14 years outside India, the gaze is that of the Indian. She is primarily a painter, and over the past few years, the body has been the chief site of exploration in her art; she has always been deeply interested in the layering of textures and pigment in her work. She has been exhibiting regularly for the past 10 years in Southeast Asia.
Recently, her work has been concerned with collaborative work, and looking to new ways to present the performative aspects of painting as in the show Time Cycles (2002).
Parvathi Nayar was born in India. She is a visual artist currently based in Singapore where she works as an arts correspondent for the Business Times. She completed her BA Fine Art with a distinction from Stella Maris College, University of Madras India and was ranked first in the University as well as the Best Outgoing Student by the Dept of Fine Arts in 1985. In 2003-2004 she completed her MA Fine Art from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design on a Chevening Scholarhip from the British Government.
