About  

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Dr. Archana Srivastava

is an artist deeply rooted in Indian history and culture. Over the past two and a half decades, after initially exploring various genres, she embraced figurative composition as her signature style. Her solo exhibitions—such as MONTAGE (Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Mumbai, 1999), REFLEXIONS (Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2001), DIVINITY (Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2014), DIVINITY–II (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 2015), and SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS (Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2023)—have explored themes ranging from Gautam Buddha and classical poetry to Krishna’s leelas and Vedic spirituality.

She has participated in prestigious art shows in India and abroad, including the Harmony Art Show, Lalit Kala Akademi Art Exhibitions, Shanghai International Art Fair, and Cannes International Art Biennale, Fira Internacional D’Art De Barcelona, Tokyo Art Fair, Focus Art Fair (New York) and others.

Recognised for her contribution to the arts, she has received multiple accolades including the Make in India Award (2018), Woman of Excellence Award (2020), and international honours such as the Collector’s Vision International Art Award (2021) and the Power of Creativity Art Prize (2021), LUXlife Global Excellence Award (2022), The Collectors Art Prize (2023), Leonardo da Vinci Prize (2023) and Premier Artist Prize (2024).

Her works are part of several esteemed private and public collections, both in India and internationally.

She holds a doctorate in History, the foundation of her culturally rich artistic vision. In 2021, she founded ArtSage, an online platform envisioned to empower artists working in folk, tribal, and traditional art forms by providing them with opportunities to showcase and sell their work, while fostering public awareness about their artfotms.

In 2024, she established Les Trésors Art Gallery, a contemporary art space located in Worli, Mumbai. A sanctuary for artistic expression and cultural dialogue, the gallery showcases both emerging and established artists, bridging traditional sensibilities with modern perspectives.

Based in Mumbai, she continues to create thought-provoking artworks, manage Les Trésors Art Gallery, and lead multiple artistic and curatorial initiatives.

EXHIBITIONS  

Epilogue  

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others”
-Jonathan Swift

Art for me is a subtle form of expression. A vision that makes intangible tangible, makes complex subjects seem simple, practical and adaptable. Owing to my conviction to portraying the suggestive, I have adhered to the thematic and message-oriented art. Through my humble efforts, I try to delineate metaphorically, the non-obvious and allusive making it understandable.

The Series on Krishna & Bhagavad-Gita:

Being a practitioner of bhakti-yoga, I have special fancy for Krishna, His pastimes (leelas) and messages. Though I had been painting on “Krishna theme” regularly ever since I was a child but in recent years I have felt compelled to portray Krishna and His messages extensively. It is said that what you feel very strongly about, comes out well on canvas and connects the viewers to the work.
With this idea, I have tried to portray various facets of Krishna”s divine personality and His transcendental messages contained in the philosophical masterpiece titled “Bhagavad-gita”. It is the most comprehensive statement of perennial philosophy. It is important that we discover meaning in the masterpiece for ourselves and our contemporaries.

Portrayal of Timeless Verses of Bhagvad-Gita

Every philosophical masterpiece contains two components. The first is period-appropriate and temporary, belonging to the beliefs and responses of the era of its birth. The other is ageless, eternal, enduring and imperishable, possessing new meanings for all following ages.
In Bhagavad-gita series I have tried to portray the timeless, imperishable and intricate messages through the use of forms which are tangent, transient and simple. It is said that you make things simple when you bring people to understand them. Making things simple is not simple. It is a translator”s work. It consists in understanding on behalf of others. As for any form of translation, you must be an expert of the two languages.
Saint Ephrem the Syrian, laying emphasis on making things simple, had said “Because it does things easily, simplicity resembles God who easily creates everything” It is said that:

“A good specialist can explain with precision. He can explain things as complicated as they exactly are. A good consultant can explain with simplicity. He can explain how doable things are “
In making things look simple the use of metaphor is very important as they make people understand new, unknown things in terms of what they know and they advance by the reasoning of description.
Making people comprehend the “Absolute Truth” can be a laborious thing, but as the Indian saint-philosopher, Bhakti Vinod Thakur has said:


“If words can manifest beautiful thoughts, a watch can indicate time, a symbol may show us history, then why can”t a painting bring associations of higher thoughts and feelings related to the transcendental specific beauty of the personal Godhead?”
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Soliloquy of a Seeking Soul