Sensitivity and awareness of analyzing real-life issues

As an artist, Prajakta Potnis stands out for her ability to rediscover instead of merely restating and documenting a piece of reality.

She has stated in an interview, “The core area of my work breeds between the intimate world of an individual and the vast world outside separated only by a wall. It resides within the four walls of a household where one’s life grows/ decays, wherein the ‘still’ walls transform as a veil and also as organic separations between the inside and the outside world. The images echo a certain kind of numbness felt in everyday living.”

Ever since her school days at Holy Cross Convent in Thane, the artist yearned to be an artist. Her art teacher encouraged her and she decided to join the Sir J.J. School of Arts where she completed her M.F.A. in painting. The promising youngster won several accolades and awards. In a group show, entitled 'Home', at the Travancore Palace, Delhi (2009), the minimal site-specific environment created by Prajakta Potnis carried forward her ongoing concerns in a lyrical way.

Here she looked to build on an earlier work – a skirting made of a white frill – and objects of daily usage in most middle-class homes like a tube light and an electric mosquito repellant plug.
Her project drew attention to ‘the disregard experienced in everyday living; to echo the complex psychological character/attitude of people living within the four walls of a house or a city.’

Her work has been featured in several significant publications, such as ‘I’m Not There: New Art from Asia,’ Ed. Cecilia Alemani (The 2010 Gwangju Biennale Foundation) and ‘Younger than Jesus: The Artist Directory’ (New Museum and Phaidon), apart from several important catalogs and magazines.

In essence, her work tends to oscillate between ornamentation and aggravation. It echoes a pursuit that may deceptively invade the human psyche, which eludes margins of passivity and recreation.