Charulata Prasada was born in New Delhi and spent her early years in Kanpur before moving to Montreal in 1976. Although she migrated to the West at a young age, traditional Indian visual culture left an indelible impression. These early influences carried equal weight to Western art in shaping her artistic sensibility. This foundation was later expanded through her travels for work across the Global South.
Her creative journey has been shaped by a life spent moving between cultures, immersing herself in new places and challenges, and engaging instinctively with the world around her. One of the most distinctive qualities of her practice is a confident and vibrant use of colour. Drawing from diverse sources of lived material culture and environments, Charu favours complex, secondary hues set against vivid, often unexpected contrasts. Colour operates structurally, organising space and meaning while resisting immediate legibility.
Rather than offering fixed narratives, Charu’s compositions ask the viewer to decode layered references and relationships that unfold gradually. The work reflects both her past professional engagement with issues of intersectionality in diverse global contexts and elements of her personal life, daily observations, and lived experience. All of these inform her ongoing exploration of power, vulnerability, and resilience, often expressed through the playful use of symbolism.
In 2012, Charu moved from Cambodia to Brooklyn, New York, where she committed fully to fine art. She returned to Canada in 2015 and now lives between Ottawa and Montreal.
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Which ‘hood are you in?
I divide my time between my childhood family home in Montreal and Centretown, Ottawa. Both places nurture different parts of my art practice and life. I find the creative energy of Montreal intensely inspirational whilst my time in Ottawa is conducive to focussed productivity. The commutes back and forth feed me with beautiful natural landscapes and plenty of opportunity for creative contemplation.
What do you do?
My art practice comprises both mixed media collage and oil painting. I really developed my collage style while living and working internationally where my time, space and access to materials were limited and my time fragmented. My collages often explore themes of solitude, intimacy and emotion, as they intersect with power and vulnerability.
I returned to Canada in 2015 to focus exclusively on my art practice. This refocussed my eye towards the magnificent scenery of Canada and the rich Canadian tradition of landscape painting. It also built on my commitment to environmentalism and appreciation of Impressionist landscape paintings. Whilst the natural world forms a scaffolding for exploration, I am particularly drawn to the mundane beauty of nature as experienced in the context of daily life – as seen from my transits. Painting landscapes has taken on a meditative, yet exciting way of communing with nature for me.
What are you currently working on?
I am getting ready to go on a collage residency with the Kolaj institute in New Orleans. The residency will focus on Carnival as Folklore. This speaks directly to my interest in exploring the underlying cultural value of folk art traditions with a contemporary eye. I couldn’t be more excited to develop my practice and learn from others in the field.
Where can we find your work?
Many of my collages can be found on the website of the James Rottman Fine Art Gallery in Toronto. I have a website that also includes my paintings, and I am frequently on Instagram.
