Praneet Soi (b. 1971, Kolkata)
Trained at the University of Californina (USA) and the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara Soi’s works have been shown worldwide including the Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2021), Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (2018), Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017) Kochi Biennale (2016) and Venice Biennale (2011), among others. He was a fellow at the Smithsonian Institute (2015) and attended the two-year international residency program Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten (2002), He lives between Amsterdam and Kolkata.
Soi began collecting images related to political instability after the events of 9/11. Responding to the skewed representations of non-white people in western media, he began to distort, crush, fragment and reconstitute these images in an attempt to filter them and push them away from the media narrative while still working within the parameters of figuration.
The hurtling figure is based on a rarely seen image that appeared in the press of a woman falling from the twin towers. The fragmented architectural drawing is of a building in Kolkata. The painting is an attempt at locating oneself when caught up in events that shape history.