Kabir

  Acrylic on Canvas

Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Priti Samyukta’sself depictions redefine femininity bringing everything into the space with inquisitiveness. Her works appear to be autobiographical, lyrical and cling to the ‘traditional’ roots that can be seen profoundly, as her ‘persistence of memory’ is deciphered deliberately within the contours of the image and the imagery that is derived from her household things such as old pillow covers. Her nostalgic opus, inspired from oriental zest, against a multi-layered background, sings the lullaby of the past and the celebration of present as she affirms, ‘journey is more important than the destination’. She would work more than 16 hours grinding large litho-stones, working on the huge compositions and taking prints. This shows her involvement in art. Her etched plates and lithographs hold tremendous quality of craftsmanship, whereby each quarter of the space is worked out systematically in order to articulate the significant entity of each form and to delve into deeper meanings. This graphic quality is clearly visible in most of her works. Now, working as the Head of the Painting faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Priti indoctrinates the importance of the hard work and perseverance to become a successful artist and stands as an example. One of the only few prominent women artists of Telangana, Priti consciously renders her muffled spaces with flora and fauna as she believes that women are always strongly associated with design and decoration. Hence the self portraits show dissimilar attires with fashionable hair dresses and with meticulously painted floral designs all over the canvas. Her works emerge as chronicles of her life, family and neighboring world echoing intransigent social norms and the multifaceted roles of women. In an unfussy engagement with her work, one can see a kind of disinterestedness in exercising profligacy of imagery other than the crawly creepy floral motifs as apparent in her small-scale work mostly done in ink using masses of lines and cross hatchings. By doing so, Priti gives an utmost attention to the expressions of the portraits which evoke a sort of narcissism occupying the entire surface. The narcissism, however, is a necessity while dealing with men around her at various contexts on and off the campus.