Magic happens to people who don’t give up. For upcoming artist Priyanka Bhattacharya, this famous quote came to life when her artworks were picked to be showcased at the recently culminated Art Jakarta 2017.
“Even though my love affair with canvas started when my father gifted me my first set of crayons, I drifted away from it as I grew up and got busy building a corporate career. It was only a year back here in Jakarta that I made a decision to get back to my passion of playing with color,” she said.
Priyanka’s career spans multiple industries: she has worked as an award winning art director with Ogilvy Mumbai, as business manager to some of the biggest Bollywood stars and, more recently, as a digital entrepreneur.
“I studied commercial arts in Mumbai and joined Ogilvy as an intern and moved up the ladder to become an art director,” she recalled. “I have fond memories of working there with some of the craziest creative minds of the industry. The energy at display, the all-nighters we pulled and the awards we won made it extremely exciting and fullfiling.”
Life took an exciting turn for Priyanka when she moved to the glamorous world of Bollywood, managing some of the biggest Bollywood stars over the next few years as a business manager and agent.
“It’s a fun profession but it is definitely not about partying all night and being invited to all A listed events,” she explained. “My real job was to make brands out of the celebrities and sell partnerships. I discovered my own skills of persistence and my love for negotiation. One take away from the job was to not be too scared to ask – the worst thing that can happen is to get a No. Anything more is a blessing.”
Priyanka met her husband on a TV shoot in Mumbai. They drifted away only to meet again after three years and get married within six months after their meeting. She has since moved from city to city and eventually landed in Jakarta in June 2016 with her husband who leads an International Restaurant chain in Indonesia.
“After moving here, I had two options: get back to a job or do what I always wanted to do a as a kid, to paint,” she said. “With my husband’s support and our families’ blessing I chose the latter. In January, I started painting again, and now I am a full time artist.”
Priyanka loves to put her thoughts on the canvas through a radical mix of colour and abstract forms. Her work is a projection of her empathy towards regular folks and their thoughts – the perfect and the imperfect, the clear and the blurred as well as the contrast of human emotions. She is now working on a series called “Face Off”, which tries to capture deep intense feelings we all experience and the contrast of the outside world.
“Being featured at Art Jakarta was the most humbling experience of my life,” Priyanka said. “Strangers taking pictures in front of my work – wow, I truly feel blessed. I hope to stay hungry, humble and am extremely inspired to create more work and hold an exhibition of my own.”
Follow Priyanka on Instagram @Pb_Art_official to see more of her artworks.
Photos courtesy of Priyanka Bhattacharya
