Current Events :
Hues of Abstraction
Mario Angel, Salomon Khammi and Ivan Ortiz
Runs to May 3, 2013
More…
Wed - Fri : 5 - 8 pm
Sat & Sun : 12 - 6 pm
Shastri Maharaj
Click here to see works by this artist
Biography
Acrylic on Canvas
12" x 12"
Shastri Maharaj currently works and lives as an artist and teacher in Chaguanas, Trinidad. He teaches visual arts at the Valsayn Teachers College. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1985 at the University of Manitoba, School or Art in Canada where he majored in painting. Later, in 1990, he completed his Master of Education (MEd) from The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus.
Shastri's work has been exhibited extensively in Trinidad and the Caribbean. Internationally, he has exhibited on numerous occasions in Germany and the United States. His work forms part of many corporate and public collections including the University of the West Indies. The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago, which has some of his pieces in its permanent collection, will present a retrospective of his work in November to December 2005.
Artist's Statement
My paintings deal with the Spiritual in art and its relationship to the environment in which I live. The need to communicate and to document visually is my basic preoccupation. Content is characterized by simple shapes and symbols, earthy colors and a narrative that borders on the surreal. Influences are derived from Aboriginal, tribal and indigenous cultures/civilizations.
The intention is to make statements that deal with silence, emptiness, apathy, minimal subject matter and a preoccupation with the concept of three. Hindu and Christian imagery continue to burst through unto the canvas in an unconscious and deliberate way.
It is about the business of making paintings that have presence. After all, isn't a painting an event!