Shashi Prem

I started to create the mandalas in 1999 at the Osho meditation resort in Pune, India. I found the requirement to respect the radial symmetry and circular form of the true mandala provided a convenient container for my creativity that allowed me to play with the decorative forms, vibrant colours and fine, detailed delivery that had always characterised my artistic expression, while also creating a meaningful and potentially useful piece of work.

I soon began to extend my designs beyond abstract patterns through floral forms into figurative worlds, glimpsed as in a kaleidoscope – little repeating pieces of paradise. For me, art is about creating a window into a more perfect world, a vision of how reality might appear when the veil of the mundane illusion of our daily lives is pulled back and we can see again the magic and wonder, the crystalline radiance of the hidden aspects of our multi-dimensional existence. An invitation to remember the transcendent realms that connect us with the true nature of who we are and why we are here.

That the mandala is also an applied art – a prop for meditation and a tool for healing – gives my work an added sense of purpose for me. These designs work – in ways I have no conscious understanding of...

I left an art school foundation course (Farnham, Surrey, UK) after a few months, when I realised the training then on offer would not help me to become the type of artist I wanted to be; it was not at all encouraging of my desire to paint beautiful, detailed, decorative works.

So I ended up with a BA (1986) and a PhD in art history (1993), both from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. My doctorate was about the influence of esoteric philosophy, alchemy etc on the work of the later Surrealist artists. This enabled me to spend time studying also the Symbolists and various earlier artists whose work was filled with magical and mysterious imagery.

I had no desire to be an academic, so I then did a short course in periodicals journalism at the LCP in London (1993).

Solo exhibition of mandala prints on canvas
Osho Galleria (oshoworld.com), New Delhi, India, 2007

Solo exhibition of mandala prints on canvas
Moving Arts Base, Islington, London, 2007-2009

Solo exhibition of mandala prints on canvas
Himalaya bookshop/café/gallery, Amsterdam, 2010