Vivek Mandalia

Vivek was brought up in West London, England, and from a young age explored a plethora of artistic endeavours from crafts to paintings. The idea of painting fills him with so much excitement and joy. Vivek’s first art exhibition, at the '13 The Gallery' in London, at 18 years old pretty much summed up his mission in life. He wanted to be a successful artist. Despite his inexperience at the time, he somehow knew that he was meant to be at his initial exhibition. Everything about that day felt right. If there was anything to substantially justify his overshadowing thought, it was the fact that he was the only one who sold art on that day. After college, Vivek surprisingly went on to study Interior Architecture at the Arts University Bournemouth in the South of England. Here, having learned so much about design and architecture, he was able to apply his fine art skills where appropriate in his countless projects. He regards his time there as challenging and fun. At the back of his mind, choosing architecture was the most sensible and safe option, but he was yet to figure out that that's not where his passion lied. Ultimately, Vivek lost the passion he once had for architecture and finished the course feeling frustrated and unsatisfied with his zig-zagged career path. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that during his free time at university, Vivek would paint the Bournemouth seascapes. The fact is, he never really stopped painting. Painting was a form of escape from his troubles, and what felt like a forced career path. Vivek’s style has changed over the last 7 years from minimalist landscapes to more impressionist artworks, where his work appears expressive and intuitive. Vivek allows his work to evolve naturally, picking up on his intuitive nature to direct the composition and subject of the painting. Naturally, Vivek developed a style of painting that exploits the thickness of oil and acrylic paint - impasto; meaning ‘to paste’ in Italian. Big, bold brushstrokes and the slash of palette knife, laden with oil paint, is where Vivek sees opportunity and expression. Instilling a new dimension into his work was a fabulous opportunity to see what more his art can offer. The subject of flowers, fruit and landscapes have been commonly dominant in his portfolio of work. He loves to start with a simple composition, and allow his intuitive nature to take over, and that’s where he says the magic lies. Vivek paints practically every day, exploring fauvism, colourist and expressionism in the body of work he produces, in his small studio in West London.