Sujata Achrekar is a Mumbai-based artist whose compelling canvasses reel you in with their hypnotic faces and magnetic colours. Predominantly worked in oils with a profusion of earthy tones like burnt sienna, ochre and rust orange, the canvases occasionally feature white for contrast. However, Achrekar is not averse to more brilliant hues, also using blues, reds and yellows sparingly in her palette. Combining figurative representation with abstract schemas, her works attempts to convey personal reflections. Focussed on a central figure, her canvases create a meditative, pensive and often melancholic mood.... Achrekar is particularly recognised for her Brahmin Brahmachari series, in which the figure of a Brahmin boy is foregrounded — tonsured-headed, traditionally attired and often quietly intense — superimposed upon Sanskrit verses and traditional manuscript imagery. Religion however, is not the subject of exploration in her works, which are far more focused on spirituality and the nature of seeking. She also uses various techniques like scratching, overlapping, scrubbing and rollers in order to add a unique textural quality to her canvases.

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