Bio

Amrita Singhal is a painter, printmaker and mixed media artist based in Berkeley, California. She studied drawing and art history with the brilliant and reclusive painter Louise Smith who was a contemporary colleague of the Bay Area Abstract Expressionists (Diebenkorn, Park, Bischoff et al.) and a one time student of Hans Hoffman and Erle Loran at UC Berkeley. Two of Amrita’s paintings are in the permanent collection of the UC Berkeley Art Museum (BAM). She has painted a Berkeley Public Works Art mural for Meyer Sound and regularly exhibits her work in solo and juried group shows. Amrita is also creating a series of immersive works in virtual reality which will invite viewers to experience her work in new and dynamic ways.

Statement

My earlier years in India within a wild natural world, vivid Indian mythology and different religions, have played a decisive role in my life as a painter. I emigrated to the US as a teenager and eventually became a lawyer. However, painting has proven to be my true calling and I am infinitely grateful for this road. My creative life thrives on chaos within a highly disciplined studio practice which primarily explores the universal in being human. Color, textures and the neverending mysteries of paint allow me to inhabit themes of nature, beauty, alienation and spirituality. Painting is the primary medium through which I communicate; however, my voracious creative life goes where it will. In addition to painting, printmaking, ceramics and writing, I have painted a City of Berkeley public works mural and am currently creating a show in virtual reality for the wider public. All my work draws inspiration from music, literature and art history; I am also drawn to ancient cultures (Vedic, Egyptian, Greek, Roman etc.) for an understanding of the contemporary experience. My goal as an artist is to experience and express the eternal, inchoate and poetic.