Prakash Patel
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Prakash Patel was born in New Zealandin 1968. Since graduating with a Diploma in Visual Arts and Design at Hawkes Bay Polytechnic in 1993, he has exhibited widely in New Zealand.
Patel's incorporation of emblems and techniques evocative of traditional Indian culture-making within the modern constraints of the painted canvas stem from his experiences as an Indian growing up in conservative Wanganui painting providing Patel with a way of expressing a sense ofcultural dislocation and the gulf between his Gujarati backgroundand the culture of 1970's New Zealand.
Patel's paintings make expressive useof colour and pattern, achieved through a meticulously restraineddot technique underpinned by a desire for artistic experimentation.In the repetitious fading of bright, iridescent colours into the dark,inky background that saturates his works, Patel creates a rippling,rhythmic energy and a sense of these organic forms moving through the dimensionality of the image. The result is two fold: arepetitive and ultimately hypnotic emphasis of space within the bounds of the canvas and a direct allusion to the intricacy, colour, spiritual and mystical themes of Indian culture - theresult of Patel's expression of cultural affinity within the structure of contemporary NZ painting.
Patel is also the creator of site-specific installation works, such as the 280 panel Satellite at The Globe Gallery in Napier. He has been an annual finalist in the James Wallace TrustArt Awards, and in January 2006 he took up the Sanskriti Residencyin Delhi, India. He continues to live in Wanganui.