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A top artist aims to empower women in Bahrain with her latest collection of abstract paintings to be unveiled today at her gallery in Adliya.
Indian Ella Prakash’s exhibit entitled Passion of Cubism, inspired by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, will feature 14 acrylic canvases showcasing the strength and beauty of women.
Ella, 52, from Segaiya, said: “I want to depict strong and powerful women in my art.
“Art, for me, has been a way to express my perception, dreams and aspirations about women. Their roles have varied in the society over a period of time.
“I tend to focus on the topics of discrimination and double standard within the walls of our society.”
Ella manages to portray these emotions through her new series using different techniques of cubism, underlying various perspectives of women within transparent layers to capture their distinctive personalities.
She added: “The paintings carry a message drawn with mystical lines, surrealistic shapes and perspective designs that are painted with soft colours, light and dark, displaying playful elements of mass, volume and texture.”
This isn’t Ella’s first brush with art as she had featured her works in various solo and group exhibitions in Bahrain and around the world including the US, Germany, India and the UK.
The mother-of-three first became interested in art when eight and started sketching fictional characters and landscapes with references from comics and books.
At the age of 18, after graduating from the Indian School Bahrain, her father, Devji Jewellers founder Devji Ramji, encouraged her to focus more on her family than art.
Although her goal of earning an art degree never came to fruition, her dream of someday becoming an international artist never stopped.
She said: “I couldn’t leave art behind because it is my life. There were no proper art schools at that time so the only way to keep my passion alive was by reading books on art and learning techniques from them myself.”
In 1984, Ella held her first exhibition at the Bahrain Art Society in Budaiya alongside other well-known Bahraini artists.
Over the years, she built a reputation for herself, gaining further recognition in 2005 for Formula One when the EDB and Yalla! Bahrain commissioned her to create 10 paintings in 10 days from three different venues.
Now, Ella’s dream is closer to fruition than ever as she will be showcasing her paintings next month at the ATIM’s Top 60 Masters International Exhibition in Miami, followed by a solo show in London’s Debut Contemporary art gallery in November and later next year at the Art Expo in New York.
She said: “I’m currently showing in Debut Contemporary and the team is currently working on securing a solo exhibition for me around November to mark my official launch in the London art scene. The venue has not yet been confirmed and it’s likely to be in the central London area where major collectors and curators attend exhibitions and scout new talent from all over the world.”
The show will display her latest 2013 and 2014 collection and Ella is excited to use the event to put Bahrain’s art community on the map.
She said: “I want to show the rest of the world that artists from Bahrain are very talented, ambitious and forward thinking. I also want to inspire other Bahrain artists to pursue their passion and venture out globally.
“It’s important that artists also learn how the art market operates and who the important players are that they should work to increase their chances of success.
“Also, if I can inspire others to pursue their own dreams, I will be one happy woman, mother, wife and artist.”
Ella’s London-based coach and founder of Debut Contemporary, Samir Ceric, believes that she has the creative skill-set to make it in the international art scene.
Samir said: “It’s been a great pleasure working with Ella over the years. I’ve witnessed a tremendous growth and development of her practice and the latest works on show in London have had a great deal of positive feedback and interest by some of London’s leading art collectors. Ella has every chance of going very far in her artistic career.”
Ella’s cubism exhibition, which took her five months to complete, will run until Sunday at the Ella Art Gallery. The paintings range in price from BD450 to BD2,000 and the gallery is open from 10am to 1pm and 3.30pm till 7.30pm.
For details, visit www.ellagallery.com or contact 39073299.
