Vrindavan Solanki

Vrindavan Solanki is a prolific Indian master artist recognized internationally. He has well over 200 exhibitions behind him, over 40 of which were solo – including in London and New York. He has won several prestigious prizes throughout his career, including the Gold Medal & First Prize of the Bombay Art Society in 1970, the Takhman 28 Print award for Etching in Udaipur in 1984, and the Drawing Prize of All India Art Exhibition, LKA, in Lucknow (UP) in 1996 – to name a few.

Solanki was born in 1942 in Junagadh, the village where he grew up, nurturing then a fascination for his natural environment and the local tribes’ men and women who visited his home regularly. He knew at a very early age that he wanted to become a painter, and so refused a job in his family retail business to focus on his art studies at the M. S. University, Baroda. Ever since, he has relentlessly developed his talent, relying on very precise observations to create vibrant life in his works.

Many of his paintings depict every day moments in the lives of tribes people of Gujarat (India) with exceptional liveliness, energy and precision. In Solanki’s unique style, scenes are built around a white blank in the canvas which allows the light to flow in, and faces details are omitted to let the body language say it all. “Details are to be avoided if one is not to be distracted”, he says. Great importance is also given to the details of the traditional attire of his characters, in an attempt to preserve these rural scenes for future generations.

Solanki is married to Chitra with whom he has a son, and lives and works in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.