ShivaniMathur                                                           

I was born in India, into a family filled with music and art.  
However, social expectations to pursue a conventional career led me to a Bachelor’s in Psychology/Philosophy, Masters in Finance and a career in investment banking.
I worked really hard and rose quickly to the top 2percent of women in the City of London. My career was exciting and the environment filled with high alpha personalities.
Success in this unique male environment gave me confidence. With confidence came freedom and opportunity. Whenever I travelled on business in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia and Canada, I spent hours in the museums of the city visited. Surrounded by legendary art, I would come home and research on the artists, their lives, their thoughts and their works - it reignited my yearning to paint.

I took several short art courses and started a parallel career in art, little did I know that my trading job would become a laboratory for inspiration and art research. I explored painting mathematical patterns marrying my love for mathematics, art and philosophy. 
Public exhibitions at ICA London, Bonhams, Royal College of Art (via McMillan Delonghi) and several places in UK, USA and Belgium followed. 
When my father was diagnosed with cancer, I began experimenting painting with materials used by doctors. Unbeknownst to me, painting expelled the stress within me onto canvas and the work reflected my turmoil. It is incredible what a tube of rich blue paint can do.
In 2015 I decided to concentrate full time on art, exhibiting in solo shows at India House, Nehru Centre, London and Bozar in Brussels. In 2020 I will begin a masters in Art and Science at Central Saint Martin's, London to immerse myself further in cross disciplinary art - something I have practised for nearly 20 years.
 I draw inspiration from reading Vedant, the biographies of successful  scientists, artists, public figures and radical thinkers but in the end the process of painting is solitary and the research  like a scaffolding falls away as the painting process takes momentum.
I like to work in scale, explore new materials, and techniques, engage with a wider like minded community, inspire and be inspired by their challenges and their journey. 
The question I ask myself everyday - "What is that one  thing, knowing which I will know everything?"
Can art lead me to this realisation, connect people, promote dialogue, disentangle stereotypes through a mechanism of asking questions?

Profits from sale of my art goes towards "expanding minds" and enhancing the quality of life experiences. Recent charities I have supported include "Great ormond street hospital", "The Royal parks", "The Eve appeal", MacMillan cancer research, "The Elephant family" ,"Action for children" and the "Railway hospital in Lucknow" and Upaya social ventures.