AVANI PATEL

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Avani Patel’s paintings and drawings are brightly colored, informed by nature, everyday life experiences and the visual landscape of her birthplace in India, her mother’s garden, the colorful costumes and fluid movements of her sister’s classical Indian dance. Her work is abstract with fictional creatures emerging organically within the process of painting or drawing. The visual language also reflects the passage of time through repetitive mark making. The artist works with a variety of mediums, acrylic paint on canvas or paper, acrylic paint makers, mylar and in different scale depicting organic forms and patterns.

Bio:

Born in Mumbai India in1976, Avani Patel immigrated to Pennsylvania with her family at 11 years old. She holds a BA from Penn State University and an MFA from Tyler School of Arts (Temple University). Indian culture is the starting point of her work. Inspired by Indian film, theatre, music, and performance. Patel explores the boundaries between Eastern and Western cultural influences.

Her paintings have been exhibited in New York, Providence, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, Chicago, Dubai, Panama, Portugal, and Mexico. From 2003 to 2006, she displayed her paintings at the American Embassy in Panama's ambassador house, and in 2005, she was asked to lead workshops in schools and art centers, creating collaborative art installations based on everyday objects in her personal life. Collin Powell and Laura Bush invited her to honor American artists at the White House in 2005, alongside 50 other artists and gallerists. She worked on the public project America’s Chinatown Voices at Columbus Park in New York City, organized by the Asian American Art Center in 2008 and 2009. Three hundred panels illustrating stories of Asian Americans in New York were publicly displayed in Chinatown New York City. The Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibited two of her paintings from 2002 to 2008. She has done residencies with Chashama Visual Arts, and Triangle Arts.