Meet Mumbai's Hottest Upcoming Surrealist Avantika Mathur

Avantika Mathur is an artist who trained at the University of the Philippines and later returned to India to pursue an MFA. She then went on to launch an extremely successful career. Currently, she travels internationally with her art. Here’s a tête-a-tête with the woman who loves being called ‘mad’!
How did you become an artist?
My interest in art is since birth. Pen and paper were more fun than playing with dolls for me. One could easily find me in a corner doodling away for hours, happy in my own world. Even at school, the art room was my favorite haunt in between classes or after school, helping out teachers with art/craft projects or décor for a school event. I was art editor of my school magazine throughout.
Art has always stayed as my preferred medium of communication. My getaway retreat. My place to seek personal solitude. Art didn’t grow on me. I chose art to be my career partner. So far, both of us have stayed truthful to each other.

‘Searching for my Destiny in the stars’ , Acrylic on Canvas. Astrology Series.

What’s the experience of being in artist in today’s world like?
Primary experience is that heady feeling of being universal and unbounded.
Art being an endless flight of lofty ideals, an artist in today’s world enjoys this freedom. Multiplicity of mediums, particularly social media, now takes art beyond the conventional realms of galleries and few hardbound journals. Images now reach teeming commoners and aficionados alike to appreciate and follow.
However, there is a flip side. The same social media brings distant malice and taboos to your doorstep. You cannot wish away the notion that world is imposing some untold restrictions on your creativity. Political strife, religious views or social intolerance binds an artist who by nature is a sensitive person. If [an] artist is making a living from proceeds of art, she/he feels obligated to be in compliance. This is a big damper to [the] creative process. The gains of open medium, thus, gets negated by the restrictions it puts.

International Women’s day at Carter Road, Bandra

What’s next?
Next — go bigger and beyond.
Bigger in terms of redefining my canvas. To work in 3-D space or on unlimited surfaces. Graffiti, murals, installations and assemblage is one of my next destinations.
In parallel, I am starting my own fashion line. Traditionally, fashion has used art. I envisage to use fashion as my art medium — to see my art growing legs and walk the street.
What is your dream project?
A surreal artwork big enough to walk through is [the] true manifestation of my dream art project.
This artwork will be a sweet harmony of all mediums in which I work — canvas, fabric, acrylic, fiber glass, etc. — a larger-than-life installation.
There is absolute clarity in my mind on the concept, image of how it will finally look like, and what all will go into making it. I am waiting for an opportune moment to execute it.
If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?
Undoubtedly, Salvador Dali. He is my idol. What a surreal art genius who did it all — from painting to movies, installations to sculpture, space and time to back and beyond. He is the man!!!
How would you describe yourself as an artist in 80 characters?
Rare confluence of a gregarious person in a reasonable artist @avtocool
Quick-fire Question series:
White or Black?
Black
Apple or Android’
Apple
Picasso or Matisse?
Picasso
Coffee or tea?
Tea
Digital or Analog?
Analog
The beach or the mountains?
The beach
Interviewed by Gayatri Sapru

About the author

Gayatri Sapru

As Director Of Culture for Culture Trip's first Indian hub, Gayatri's job and passion overlap to a great extent. She completed her undergrad at St.Xavier's in Mumbai with an English Lit (hons) degree, while also writing papers in religious studies, anthropology, Pscychology, Law and Human rights. She then went up to the University of Oxford to do an MSc in Social Anthropology. She dreams of being a renaissance woman - She loves writing about travel, history and culture, and spends her free time experimenting with food and watching bad reality TV.