User:Skatraga/Siddharth katragadda

Siddharth was born in India in the garden city, Bangalore. Siddharth is the author of two award-winning volumes of poetry - Dark Rooms and The other Wife. "The Festival of Kites" is his first Novel. His work has appeared in A Generation Defining Itself, Golden Thoughts, America at the Millennium and Sulekha. He has been interviewed in a number of periodicals and on Book Crazy Radio and his work has been reviewed in newspapers/magazines like the Deccan Herald, Indian Express and Suite101. An excerpt from Festival of Kites was published in Writer’s Monthly. Siddharth is also an established Artists and has been painting since he was around ten. His paintings are featured on Art Walk San Diego, "Indian Art Collectors" Website, a premium portal of Indian Art, CreativeBrush, manasartz, Teamgalleryone, Gallery Asian Art and Indian Painters.net and Mixture, a showroom in Downtown San Diego. His paintings can be viewed at his Bangalore based Gallery, Sid Art Gallery, Indiranagar. Siddharth has created his own unique style in which he rarely uses the brush. He calls his technique "brushless painting". His latest paintings is an Abstract Portraits Series of "Dark South Indian" women. While he started off painting Abstracts, his style has now evolved into a fusion of Figurative and Abstract, with Figurative dominating his art. About his paintings: Siddharth is very much an Indian Artist, but he has never been able to distance himself from Western influences. "I'm drawn towards the intricacy of Modern Indian Art and the Simplicity of Western Art. A big part of my struggle as an artist is to make the two art forms meet." Solo Exhibitions: • “Colorful Dreams - I”, Palm Meadows, Whitefield, Bangalore, India - Feb 3 2008 (31 paintings on display, sold 9 paintings in all) • “Colorful Dreams - II”, Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishath,Bangalore, India Feb 21/22 2008 (sold 2 paintings)

Group Exhibitions: Arts&Crafts Fair, University of Texas - 1996 Arts Fest, Qualcomm Inc, San Diego - 2006 Arts Fest, Qualcomm Inc, San Diego - 2008 Artwalk on the Bay, San Diego, CA - Sept 2008 (juried show) Delmar Taste&Stroll Art Fair, Delmar, CA - Oct 2008 (juried show)

Corporate Collections: GE India Ltd, Bangalore (3 Paintings) Private Collections: Sheri Thayer (Ohio, US), Shakina& Kishore (Bangalore), Radhika&Naren (Bangalore), Ben Salmon (Bangalore), Muthannas (Bangalore), Cyrene (Canada), Kamaljeet Hayer (Delhi),Rakesh Jeswani (Bombay), Prathana Gopinath (Chennai), Pamela Batsha (Redwood City, CA) He lives with his wife and two kids in California.