Preet Srivastava

From Ego:

Preet Srivastava was born in India, lives and works in New York. She grew up on the West Coast, in a family of artists, at a time when India seemed very far way. Time has changed that and her connection with India is evident. She has a “relationship with bindis” and you see at least one dot in each of her canvases, sometimes obvious and sometimes hidden. After an undergraduate degree in Biology, Preet went to Johns Hopkins to study Medical Illustration but soon realized that she wanted to do something “less confining”. She subsequently joined the ART Academy in San Diego. Though grateful to Art School for teaching her the fundamentals she recognized that she was being forced to throw away her heritage and become a “European Painter”. “As long as we don’t lose something that is inherently our own, it’s okay.”

She loves Bollywood movies and finds them romantic but adds that they “could take a stronger turn towards different looking actors”. In that light she read an essay about art and Bollywood by Indian cultural theorist, Ranjit Hoskote, that “hit her in the stomach”. It talks in essence about how artists works “should not be about negation but negotiation”.

More here.