anita

Educational Qualifications

  • 1981     Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Kingston College of Art, London, UK
  • 1982     Art Teachers Certificate Reading University, Surrey, UK

Professional Experience

  • 1983    Sugar Cane- furniture business in London. The furniture was
                nominated for a Design Council Award. It was used in
                television, films, magazines and advertisements.The furniture was
                exhibited at the Pret a Porter fashion show in Paris and the Ideal
                Homes Show in Birmingham and London.
  • 1995    Designed fashion for Boy London, Hyper-Hyper and Howie in London.

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2004      Osborne Gallery Surrey
  • 2006      And London
  • 2009      Studio 21 Kolkata
  • 2010      Ganges Art Gallery Kolkata

Group Shows

  • 1999      Gagliardi gallery London
  • 2000      Royal Academy of Art Summer show London
  • 2001      Dover St. Arts Club London
  • 2002      Studioart London
  • 2003      Royal Overseas League London
  • 2005      Harvey Nichols London
  • 2006      Lemon St.Gallery Cornwall UK
  • 2009      ClMA Summer show Kolkata
  • 2009      CIMA Annual show Kolkata
  • 2011      Arts Trust Birla Academy of Art Kolkata
  • 2012      Ganges Art Gallery Kolkata
  • 2012      ITC Sonar Bangla Kolkata
  • 2013      Ganges Art Gallery Kolkata
  • 2013      Galley Kolkata, Kolkata
  • 2013      Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
  • 2013      Bruno Art Gallery Singapore
  • 2020      Shortlisted Royal Academy summer show
  • 2020      ING Discerning Eye exhibition

Anita's work developed from figurative painting to mixed-media collage. Most recently she has invented a style she calls Fractism: cut paper relief on paper or canvas and boxed in wood and glass. Her idea is based on fractals, a mathematical discovery, made by Benoit Mandelbrot, of a geometric pattern that is repeated at every scale and so cannot be represented by classical geometry. Through fractals Anita expresses her personal view that all things are connected and that everything in nature repeats and reflects itself. Her forms are both organic and abstract.

In 1998 Anita's photograph was used in an artwork titled The God-look-a-like Contest by Adam Chodsko. It was shown in the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London. The exhibition was the cause of much controversy around the world. The artwork is owned by Charles Saatchi.

Anita presently resides and has her studios in both London and Kolkata.

Statements

At college I was influenced by William Coldstream an English painter. I painted from the model. The system was based on the philosophical idea of logical positivism. After college I lost faith in the idea.
I visited India for the first time since childhood. I met David Hockney. He told me to do whatever interested and delighted me. This was a huge release for me.
My painting changed into abstracted figurative composition. I used different viewpoints like Cezanne, local colour like El Greco and rhythms like Delacroix.
After this my pictures developed into mixed-media collage and became more abstract.

Eventually I gained my style which is cut paper relief. It is completely abstract. I call my style 'Fractism' after my discovery of repeating and reflecting patterns in nature which scientist Mandelbrot called fractals.
This is the discovery that all things are connected and that fundamentally there is no chaos. I came to this conclusion after I travelled all over India and saw life being lived today as for centuries if not thousands of years.
Mandelbrot discovered that indeed even in seeming randomness like cloud formation or branches in trees there is pattern.

My pictures are a balancing act in effect as I shift and move around shapes until I am happy with them. All my forms are cut from magazines and papers.
I then twist and turn paper into 3-D shapes. The shapes are glued onto paper or canvas and then boxed.

Basically my style has evolved out of my philosophy though I say this with trepidation as I do not believe the best art comes out of theory nor rationalization after the event.

MULTIPLYING THE GLOBAL?
Fractals, glamour, and the art of Anita Gopal

Dr Natasha Eaton UCL Download PDF