In addition to being a highly respected SVP Group Creative Director at McCann Erickson, Jagdish Prabhu is also an amazingly talented fine artist.
With no formal education in art, Jag, who always loved to draw, began taking his fine art seriously only a decade ago. Rising early every morning, he now indulges his passion by working in the backyard studio of his Connecticut home, before transporting his two young daughters to school and commuting into the city for his “day job”.
With his very first show now under his belt (Lana Santorelli Gallery) and several more highly anticipated showings scheduled for the near future, Jag is confident in his fine art career. ”I don’t look at art books, I don’t go to museums anymore. I know what I have to do and if I fail, it’s ok, because it’s mine.” Drawing early inspiration from the likes of Andrew Wyeth and Francis Bacon, Jag has come to master an artistic style that is uniquely his own.
Behind all of Jag’s work is his desire to portray the human as an organism, with no race, culture, skin tone, etc.. ”If there is to be a centrality to all of my work, then it is dealing with the human image. An image that strips away all the divisive inessentials of culture, race, provenance…and deals with the primal elements of human existence…. getting under the skin as it were.”
Recent explorations have lead him to the medium of carbon on paper. Simply put, Jagdish “paints” with smoke. This process, improved upon by significant trial and error, occurs by holding paper above an open flame. Although he may start with an image in mind (usually people) and attempt to re-create what he envisions, the carbon sometimes drives the work, becoming a completely organic process, creating one of a kind patterns.
The carbon series embodies Jag’s central concept in a very clear, simple and somewhat ironic way. Nothing in life can exist without carbon; it is the most basic element. He loves the irony of this - of life and death. We as a culture are abusing this element in a way that can ultimately lead to our demise.
Interestingly enough, when asked what drew him to this medium, Jag’s response was: “Frankly, I don’t know!” He started his explorations in art with very traditional mediums — from watercolor to ink to oil, and eventually to smoke–and, in the future to “who the hell knows after this!” Regardless of the medium, the subject remains the same: LIFE. His goal is to create something with a feeling of identification, where when you look in the mirror (the image), you see yourself. ”If my work has this power, I will have achieved something.” The simple design and aesthetic of the work is not enough, “humans, the messed up species that we are, are the perfect thing to show us ourselves.”
