Dr Alka Chadha Harpalani, Born and brought up in Punjab, BFA from Govt Arts College, Chandigarh and MFA and PhD from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Alka was confronted with great contrast of cultures. The conservative society of Varanasi exposed her to myriad aspects of Hindu religion. It added positive charm to her personality, which became a perfect blend of conventions and modernism and this condensation of sensations started getting imprinted in her paintings. Her art is an amalgamation of images and calligraphy which acts as a design in background. Her paintings are like a pictorial diary. Her paintings became an intense concoction of her poetry and images. She tries to merge boundaries by using installation of fibre and wood more often along with the paintings.
“I like to mix my magics.” She says, “I use mixed media to integrate sensations into coherent painterly forms, where one can see intensification, clarification and interpretation of experiences in various degrees. The brushwork is declaration of my personal freedom where mixed media supports me in creating visual variety. In a few words, it’s a correspondence between feeling, form and technique, where my painting continues to change and grow at every step.”
Alka is an artist, a researcher, a writer and a poet settled in Bangalore. She has been in a Higher Education job and has taught as Asso Professor in a Post Graduate College for fifteen years. She is currently a Coordinator in E-learning project by MHRD in association with Dayalbagh University, Agra. She is an Editor of a journal- Artistic Narration; recipient of many prestigious awards and honours; has held and participated in many All India and International exhibitions; published reviews and research papers in renowned journals, magazines and newspapers. She has been a resource person in many Universities and also a content writer of demonstrations of famous artists.
