Kaizen Design Accents recently brought multiple award winning artist Ketna Patel’s art and décor to Chennai for the first time. Ketna is a pop artist who captures the reality of what she sees in societies around the world. She has lived in three different continents: Africa, Europe and Asia, each for more than a decade. Her work belongs to the realm of street culture which she documents with realism.
Ketna rently presented an art collection, titled ‘Asia POP!’ The theme was reflected in her work with desi-infused influences and a lot of bright colours. “My work has a strong narrative. It’s never abstract. When I work on a piece with an Asian theme my characters are from all over Asia. I try to be faithful to India, in particular. The colour palette I use changes depending on the country. With India, how could I miss out on all the bright colours?” she laughs. When asked what she loves most about the country, she says, “I love how unpredictable India is. It’s the biggest piece of theatre, where the story and characters are never constant.”
Ketna has studied architecture and design and loves to experiment with architectural elements. She has worked on paintings, designed furniture and is even collaborating with fashion houses. In 2011, she was asked by Tata Motors to convert one of their Nano cars into a work of art. She used glass mosaic from the Italian company, Sicis Art Factory. She recently painted a giant fiber elephant for the internationally known Elephant Parade, the world's largest open-air exhibition to save the Asian elephant from extinction.
To Ketna, art is like a mirror to life. “Art is a facility where you learn so much about yourself. Whether it’s dance, music or painting you stumble upon many things about yourself. It lets you see many aspects of yourself you never thought existed.”