Prabhakar Kolte was born in 1946 and received his diploma from the Sir J.J.School of Art in 1968. Between 1972 and 1994, he taught at the School of Art. He has had several solo shows and participated in important group exhibitions like "Art-Mosaic - celebrations of Calcutta's Tercentenary, Calcutta and Mumbai, 1990."Wounds" CIMA Gallery, Calcutta, 1993; 'Parallel Perceptions' Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 1993 and 94 and 'Bombay - A Tribute To The City' organised by RPG Enterpeises, Mumbai, 1995. Kolte has also exhibited at 'Six Indian Painters' curated by Geeta Kapur at Totograd, Yugoslavia, Ankara and Istanbul, 1985, 'Three Artists' Hong Kong, 1995 and Galerie Foundation for Indian Artists, Amsterdam, 1996. Kolte lives and works in Mumbai. Kolte's abstract layering with paint echo cityscapes where the signs and textures reveal his modernist consciousness. Bands of colour juxtaposed against each other create bold ascensions and recessions. As a purely abstract painter, Prabhakar Mahadeo Kolte's concern lies not in the world of tangible reality, but in the intangible, the unseen essence that is hidden within. In his paintings, mostly untitled and of rectangular composition, Kolte creates bold bands of sensuous abstract forms in austere greys with some flashes of pinks, mauves, whites, greens and blues, as if out of the mysterious depth there are glimpses of light, brightening up the surface of the painting. The poet-painter describes this as darshan, akin to a mystical experience or revelation. According to him, his works reflect a state of vision that does not symbolize anything but itself. It is neither representative or interpretative, neither expressive nor illustrative". The subject is not important; it is the experience of abstract delight and ecstatic revelation his paintings evoke that is important....ExC Chamatkara, Whitelays Art Gallery, London, Oct-Nov 1996. STATEMENT: Right from childhood, I know that I loved painting. I enjoyed the process; something emerging from nothing, that something is taking shape on surface. Today, the process of painting has been enjoyed more than the ultimate goal. Behind each painting, lies six-seven paintings, hidden. I go on painting until satisfied. I do not think in terms of words, I start thinking in terms of colour and form. The subject is the process itself. I have realized that nature is so vast and infinite and outside. I cannot reach this nature, but at least inside me I have access.