CONFLUENCE

Exhibition by Aparna Swarup at Kizo Art Gallery.

Aparna Swarup comes to Kizo art Gallery at Gateway. Having travelled and practiced her career in different continents, Aparna is grounded in her practice. Her upcoming exhibition at Kizo titled Confluence is a reflection and a response to her life experience

Born in Kanpur, India, Aparna did her early schooling there. As a child she participated in several painting competitions both at the school and at national levels, winning honours and distinctions in some of them. She completed her Undergraduate studies at Rajasthan University in 1984 where she obtained a Masters Degree from Punjab University in 1986.

After taking a break, she started pursuing art seriously during her diplomat husband’s stint in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and learnt from several Ethiopian masters. She moved to London in 2000 where she studied Life Drawing course in Hampstead, she also studied life painting and mixed media painting in Central St. Martins to further refine her technique.

In January, 2000 she participated in a major exhibition organized by the Heinrich Boll Foundation. As part of this exhibition, Aparna’s works travelled to Germany and several countries in East Africa. Impressed with her work, the Alliance Française in Addis Ababa hosted her first solo exhibition Creations in May 2000. The debut exhibition was an outstanding success both critically and commercially with Aparna setting a new record for the number of paintings sold in any solo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise. Thereafter she held another solo exhibition at the Addis Ababa Hilton.

In February 2002, she held her first solo exhibition in London titled Different Strokes at the Nehru Centre in Mayfair. In October and November 2002, Aparna’s works were exhibited at a British gallery ‘Artistic License’.

On returning to India, Aparna participated in an artist’s camp in Agra celebrating 350 years of the Taj Mahal with celebrated Indian and Pakistani artists in January 2005. Her works were displayed at the India International Centre, New Delhi.

Confluence runs at the Kizo Art Gallery (Upstairs Gallery) in Gateway from November 3 – launch time 18h30 – until November 16. More information from Kizo Curator, Nathi Gumede, on 031 566 4322, fax 031 566 2494 or email: nathig@kizo.co.za or visit www.kizo.co.za