Praneet Soi

Praneet Soi is an Indian artist known for his multidisciplinary approach to art. His artistic practice delves into themes of social and economic landscapes, migration, and the impact of media representation on political events.

Biography of the Praneet Soi

Praneet Soi was born in Kolkata in 1971. He embarked on his artistic journey on the west coast of India in 1990, pursuing a degree in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharajah Sayajirao University, Baroda, during the backdrop of liberalized economic policies and globalization in the 1990s. After completing his studies, Soi worked in the advertising industry as a visualizer in New Delhi.

In 1999, he moved to California, where he attended the University of California at San Diego, acquiring his second Master's degree in the visual arts. In 2001, the artist was selected for a summer residency at Skowhegan, Maine. In 2002, he moved to the Netherlands to attend the prestigious Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten, participating in a two-year international artist residency program. 

Media reports on unrest in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in the events following September 11th influenced his artwork. This led to a series of miniature paintings exploring terrorism and later expanding into depictions of the human body. Site-specific wall paintings also emerged from these sources, which prompted Soi to conduct further investigations and create an archive documenting his relationship with the media.

Since 2008, Soi has been actively documenting small-scale factories and workshops in Kumartuli, North Kolkata, historically known for its religious iconography and sculpture-making. The transformation of Kumartuli from a traditional pottery clan to micro-workshops and warehouses inspired Soi's series of works titled "Notes on Labor." Through slide shows, miniature paintings, and videos, he delves into a pluralistic representation of this complex, historic, and yet relevant site.

Interactive processes are integral to Soi's art, and he has designed drawing machines to share his creative process with audiences. The "Astatic Machines," influenced by Paul Klee's "Pedagogical Sketchbook," emphasize drawing's importance in Soi's practice. In collaboration with the Mondrian Foundation, he established a pilot residency for artists and practitioners in Kolkata, emphasizing a material approach to art creation.

Soi's works have found homes in prominent collections across Europe and India, including the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Notably, he was commissioned to create a permanent work for the HCL headquarters in Chennai in 2014. Praneet Soi also represented India at the Indian Pavilion in Venice in 2011.