A TRIP FULL OF COLOURS

The Woven Image by Vinita Karim showcases her finely done embroidery work and closer one gets to the artwork, the beauty of the threads leave the viewer in awe

- Vinita Karim

Contemporary artist Vinita Karim has travelled all over the world living in over 15 cities across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, absorbing experiences and artistic influences that are reflected in her work. Each of her works appears as a true poetic space resulting from numerous esthetic operations. So much so that the multicultural subject matter has made her original paintings, sculptures and installations popular with an international audience.

In a distinctive colour palette of gold, red and blue, she depicts vibrant cityscapes that mix the real and the imagined. She says, "My work is built on imaginary cities, however, you may see hints of many actual places in them: the blue of the Mediterranean Sea from Alexandria and Tripoli, the hulls of the boats from Padma river, Dhaka, the minarets of mosques from Istanbul, the flags flying on top of temples in Varanasi... These are the little details which emerge into my canvases like signifiers of experiences, sensations and memories making each artwork unique." Karpm says the reason she paints abstract landscapes is perhaps because of all the shifting landscapes she has been exposed to.

"My work has many diverse sources stemming from an initial education in Sweden, followed by exposure to countries rich in history and culture such as Egypt, Germany, Switzerland, and the Philippines. Nature, as always, is also a great source of inspiration. It reveals its secrets surreptitiously: in the darkening of the skies before a storm or through the patterns of a wake as a ship sets sail. Though the focus of a city may often be its marketplace and the buildings men have erected, it is the gradients of mountains and the invitation of the sea that provides scaffolding for a city."