Elgin & Eye Painting

A naturalised Singaporean, Soma Pradhan comes from a family of agitators and legislators with roots in coastal Bengal. She took a Masters in Botany and initial classes in painting beside the Ganges in places trodden by the likes of Mark Twain and George Mallory. After a decade of work in Delhi in textiles and fashion with a post graduation from NIFT, she moved to Singapore. There, she learnt object design, watercolours and Chinese ink painting at NAFA, bastion of the late, great Georgette Chen. Soma works across paper, silk and silver. She has exhibited at NAFA. She has been published in The Rappahannock Review, Anatolios Magazine, 3Elements Review, Paranthesis Journal and the Lumiere Review. Soma is inspired by the works of Tolouse-Lautrec, Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O Keefe and other influences such as New Wave cinema, DC Comics and Japanese film. She seeks to constantly challenge and redraw the boundaries of the possible. Soma believes that the innovation in art which began with Impressionism at the peak of the Industrial Age, must continue in the digital, instant social age to keep it relevant. She believes this is possible through bold experimentation in material, interpretation of movement and the use of light.