MEET MAD MEN MODERN
“I came for the art and stayed for the community. I feel a deep sense of belonging in NFTs.”
When you glimpse Soul Curry Art’s works, you’re greeted by powerful colors and mystical characters. A Modern Cubist artist and abstract expressionist, Ishita Banerjee (a.k.a. Soul Curry Art) is a proud Canadian with Indian roots, encompassing both the East and the West to create mesmerizing artwork. Her love for color and color harmonies comes from her South Asian heritage.
Before becoming a digital artist, Ishita was already a contemporary artist for decades and holds BFA and MFA degrees in art. She shares: “The Cubist movement is my biggest artistic influence. Their way of playing with construction, compositional juxtaposition, and multiplanar perspective is something I have studied in depth. Other than Cubism, I am fascinated by Mid-Century modern colors, shapes, and the Bauhaus movement in art.”
Having worked in media for over 10 years, and in a quest to find ‘mainstream avenues that celebrated digital art,’ her first introduction to NFTs came in 2021. It provided her with the perfect solution!
“Verifiable provenance of artworks on the blockchain, royalties in perpetuity, and unique ownership of digital assets were fascinating to me. I wanted to be a leader in exploring this new technological mechanism that NFTs were offering,” she says.
Having dabbled in creating NFTs, it would be Soul Curry Arts’ fine art Cubist collection that put her on the map. Within an online platform populated by intriguing and forward-thinking artists, her style is unique and embodies a harmonious blend of her fine art background with digital tools.
“I call my style ‘Mad Men Modern.’ Inspired by the 1970s, it is my take on Cubism reimagined with a mid-century modern flair. I am a traditional artist who loves working with acrylics on canvas, ink and gouache on paper, but also work with ease on Procreate, Photoshop and After Effects. My goal is to be medium agnostic, bridging my traditional art into the digital, and vice versa.”
Within the web3 sphere, she has found a home. A place where a creative career has been made possible. “It is almost a cliche now, that I came for the art and stayed for the community. I feel a deep sense of belonging in NFTs. I have loved being exposed to so much talent and variety of art every day.”
