Prakash Patel was born in Whanganui in 1968 and continues to live and work in the region.

He completed a Diploma in Visual Arts and Design at Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic in 1993 and has exhibited widely across New Zealand ever since.

Prakash’s practice grew out of an early sense of standing between two worlds – his parents’ Gujarati background and the culture of 1970s provincial New Zealand. That in-between space still shapes his work: meticulous fields of dots and repeating motifs, built up in bright, glowing colour, that read at once as star charts, ocean depths and cellular life. The paintings hold still and move at the same time, drawing the eye in close before releasing it back out to something vast.

In 2001 Prakash received a grant to travel to Gujarat to study the artistic traditions of the Warli people, and in 2006 he undertook an Artist Residency at Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi. He has been a regular finalist in the James Wallace Art Awards and created the 280-panel installation Satellite for The Globe Gallery, Napier. His work is held in the permanent collection of the Sarjeant Gallery, alongside private collections throughout New Zealand.