We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Preeti Varma a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Preeti, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I have no regrets about when I started my art career. Each stage of my life offered unique insights that informed and enriched my life and creative work. Starting a creative career later in life, after accumulating years of life experiences, has given me a distinct perspective. So, while starting sooner may have had its advantage, I cannot deny the value my past work experience offers in supporting my artistic endeavors and art practice. The time is always right when you are ready.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
As a visual artist, my creative journey traverses multidisciplinary genres, encompassing painting, mixed media, and photography. I have also explored some three-dimensional work in the form of sculptural installations. I have lived and worked both in the East and West. In 2015, my husband and I embarked on a new chapter in our lives, relocating to the vibrant city of New York where I live and practice my art.
I was born and raised in New Delhi, the historical capital city of India. Originally from the mountainous terrains of the Himalayas, my parents migrated to the city early in their lives. My context has always been of living in some of the busiest metropolitan centers of the world, including Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, and my current home, New York City.
A Life in the Fast Lane:
My professional journey began in the hotel industry as a business development and sales executive in leading luxury hotel groups in India, in a career spanning 18 years. When I moved to Singapore, I spent a year in a premier American law firm leading marketing and business development for their Singapore office before finally leaving corporate life behind to pursue my artistic calling in 2010.
But to rewind, I was always a painter and a creative being. As an avid artist, I actively participated in various opportunities and art competitions growing up. While my art teacher in high school had encouraged me to take up a career in the arts, I felt that the life of an artist could be unpredictable in terms of being financially self-sustaining. I wanted to be independent, which led me to explore other options.
Equally, I was drawn to a corporate career. I realized I had a flair for working with people. It gave me energy, and I thrived on it. This led me to the services industry. My years in the hotels gave me an invaluable grounding in human behavior, building trusted relationships, and delivering excellence in client engagement. I developed an ability to connect with people from diverse cultures and walks of life, ranging from corporate elites and glitterati to leaders of nations. It was a unique world in contrast to the real world outside, an exhilarating and gratifying experience! Perhaps it even ignited my early fascination for contrasts around me, which led to the development of my subject matter later in art.
The turning point: Art school & foray into my artistic life
The turning point for the pivot to my art career happened in 2003 when I began painting again after a hiatus, soon after we had moved to Bangalore. A chance encounter with an accomplished Indian artist, who also became a mentor, led to my first group show in 2006 while I was still working in the hotels. It sowed the seed for my transition into becoming a professional artist.
In the ensuing years, I devoted myself entirely to my artistic calling and committed to a comprehensive education in fine arts. In 2014, I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, in collaboration with The LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. After relocating to New York, I continued to expand my horizons by seeking tutelage at the prestigious Art Students League of New York.
About my work:
My work is profoundly informed by my experiences as a migrant over the last twenty-five years. Living amidst diverse urban landscapes and cultures has been a rich source of inspiration, shaping my understanding of identity, human connections, memory, movement, belonging, and displacement, all forming my conceptual concerns.
In moving across cities and countries, I have experienced the fluidity of physical space, constantly shifting between places and cultures. These encounters have nurtured and fueled my curiosity, creating a deep engagement with my immediate surroundings and rendering me acutely attuned to the familiar and the unfamiliar.
Thus, it informs my artistic process, which begins with observing spaces and my relationship with them. This nature of heightened awareness during my time in Asia and the influences of oriental art led to the beginning of a distinct visual language in my mixed media work, with the overlooked and the mundane in the built environment as my muse. I used photography and wax on delicate rice paper to create layered works to capture and express the human experience in our fast-paced lives while challenging broader narratives about conventional notions of beauty, aesthetic value, and where it resides.
My oil paintings are a stream of consciousness, where memory, the subconscious mind, and my cultural heritage guide a visual representation of my inner-outer world. In these mindscapes, physical and mental spaces merge in a dynamic, ever-changing way. My focus on texture, color, and form reflects my interest in the tactile, sensory, and material qualities of the world around me that I sometimes observe as an outsider.
I find myself captivated by the infinite possibilities in the evocative power of color and the expressive potential of form. The physical and cultural context of existence and the interconnectedness between me and the organic and inanimate world inspire abstract biomorphic forms often seen in my work.
Currently, my work includes two distinct bodies of works – oil paintings series Nefelibata and Innsaei, and mixed media works Aesthetics of the Quotidian, Memory Bytes, and The Seen Unseen.
My Process:
An integral part of my process is walking around urban landscapes. I take hundreds of photographs of objects and details that most would scarcely notice. These could be anything from the ubiquitous fire hydrants, drain pipes and covers, construction site elements, abandoned objects, subway tracks and tiles, poetic cracks, blocks of colors and curious markings on the streets or signs languishing on the street side, a puddle, et al. I study the material qualities of these quotidian elements and observe the experience of those meditative moments of interacting with them. These visual references that I assign meaning and history to act as an inspiration for my work. It creates a means to connect with the spaces we inhabit, mapping the physical and the emotional landscape.
While I plan an overall composition, spontaneity and chance inform my art making process. I often incorporate the unpredictability and fluidity of my materials, like oil paints and wax. Intrigue, impulse, intuition, and metamorphosis are essential tenets of my work.
Awards & Collections:
I was honored to receive the esteemed Kuniyoshi Grant for painting and the John M. Regan Jr. Scholarship for my mixed media work at the Art Students League of New York. My artwork has been showcased in exhibitions and international art fairs across the United States and Singapore. Noteworthy among these are my first solo show in 2017, Art on Paper in New York City, Texas Contemporary Art Fair, LA Art Show, and Singapore Edition of Affordable Art Fair. My work is in private collections in New York City, Washington D.C., Texas, Singapore, and India.
What are you most proud of?
Leaving a corporate career of nearly two decades and starting afresh as an art student at 40 was a decision I am proud of. It took courage to leave behind an established career and become a beginner again. It was a big step, but my passion and intuition guided me.
What problems you solve for your clients, and/or what do you think sets you apart from others? And what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
Through my work, I strive to cast a fresh light on our collective consciousness and dwell on the complex and nuanced nature of human awareness. A fusion of two distinct aesthetic traditions, Eastern and Western, my work seeks to evoke reflection, wonderment, and intrigue of the visceral human experience and its subjective nature. My work navigates a sense of space, movement, the intangible essence of lived experiences and cherished memories. As an artist, I am in a constant state of evolution and self-discovery in search of meaning and purpose.
I also hope my journey inspires those on the fence about making a radical shift by demonstrating that it is possible to reinvent oneself at any time and stage of life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
There were three key areas that I had to unlearn:
1. From the convergent to the fluid
I was hardwired to think of targets and outcomes in my corporate career. Everything needed to be worked backward from a goal by employing a structured approach to achieve predictable results.
I naturally carried this mindset into art making until one of my professors pointed it out during art school. I am grateful to him for making me aware of this pattern. It was an important lesson, and I had to learn to be fluid and trust the process, not to get to the outcome but to arrive at it organically. After many years, I discovered there is no destination as an artist but an unchartered creative adventure without a map if you will! The journey itself is the most crucial part of the process.
2. Perfection versus exploration
In the world of luxury, perfection is paramount. I was trained for perfection. Our customers had high expectations, and we were taught to deliver on them consistently and with precision.
But in the art world, there is no such thing as perfection. Art is not about attaining a certain standard of flawlessness but about expressing oneself in an authentic, imaginative, and meaningful way. It is about exploration, experimentation, and growth. “Create constantly” detached from an absolute outcome, is the most important advice any artist will give you.
3. From the objective to the subjective
In the business world, life is primarily black or white, with some shades of grey. Outcome or result is either good or it isn’t. I had to learn to see and understand a lot of grey in the art world. Art is subjective, philosophical, emotive, and at the very core, there is no good or bad, right or wrong art: just varying perspectives, approaches, and consequent artistic expression. There is no set formula, and that’s the part that keeps me intellectually occupied and craving for more.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
1. It is a privilege
Being an artist allows for self-expression in a very personal and unique way. I am grateful for the privilege of embracing the fluidity my path offers me to explore my ideas and truly give in to those deep inner callings.
2. Fostering connection and creativity
The opportunity to engage with the world around me in a profoundly creative way is special. I feel a deep sense of purpose and fulfillment when my work prompts contemplation, inspires meaningful conversation, or creates sheer joy. This emotional resonance is a profound and gratifying aspect of the artistic experience, connecting me to a broader community of artists, viewers, and collectors who celebrate the beauty of the creative process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.preetivarma.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/preetivarmastudio
Image Credits
All images are of my original works – Oil paintings and Mixed media works, Copyright- Preeti Varma Studio.