Chetan Naveen Kapur
Chetan Naveen Kapur is an international fine arts creator, painter and photographer. He is an artist of British and Indian heritage.
Chetan always had a strong passion for drawing and painting ever since his childhood in India. He took an avid interest in art and drawing classes since elementary school and maintained his interest in this field. Chetan graduated from the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, and thereafter attended and graduated with high honours and distinction from the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Bachelors of Science in Economics degree from the Wharton School of Business. Chetan started as a self-educated painter and photographer but while at the University of Pennsylvania he had the opportunity to take several fine art classes that allowed him to delve into his passion for the arts. Chetan worked several jobs while in university but always made time to draw, paint and take photographs outside of the more formal classroom environment. Subsequently, Chetan attended art classes at the Art Students League of New York where he had the opportunity to practice his oil and acrylic painting techniques, and completed advanced photography workshops at the Nikon School. Chetan had the privilege as part of his many charitable endeavours to teach drawing, painting and photography, and witnessed how this brought immense joy and hope into the life of others. Chetan takes great delight in exploring life’s beauty, including Mother Nature, and has never taken this gift of beauty for granted. He captures life’s beauty with a unique artistic flair in a variety of fine art forms including painting and photography, while inspired to push the boundaries of fine art.
Chetan Naveen Kapur’s natural painting styles have been described as impressionist, post-impressionist, abstract impressionist, abstract expressionist, cubist or a unique combination of these art styles. His paintings have a truly masterful use of tonality, texture and display an impressive ability to juxtapose and complement colors making his paintings extremely vibrant and inspiring. Chetan’s journey to discover beauty has taken him around the globe, and inspired him to paint and photograph this beauty in a way that awakens and inspires the human spirit. Chetan also believes that there is beauty to be found in some of the most simple or common things in life, and that beauty can be discovered within oneself to be drawn from memory, imagination and feeling. Kapur is of the view that the greatest beauty originates from and is discovered within a person’s spirit or soul. He draws influence, inspiration and ideas from a variety of sources as he adventures in his search of beauty. Kapur admires several great modern masters including Renoir and Monet, old masters such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as several great painters and artists of Asian and American origin. Chetan has been able to give life to his own unique styles and visions that inspire, display beauty that is admirable and which showcase his individuality and creativity.
Kapur has had a distinguished and interesting career in finance prior to following his passion into the fine arts. He has been engaged in painting and photography for decades, even during and prior to his first career in finance.
Kapur’s first job out of university was in investment banking where he worked for leading investment bank Salomon Smith Barney (that later merged to form Citigroup). Kapur was quickly promoted at Salomon due to his exceptional performance and diligence. Subsequent to that experience and during the technology and market crash of 2001-2002, Mr. Kapur founded a leading investment advisory firm that went on to run one of the top market neutral and multi-strategy funds in the world. Kapur built this business from the ground up, or more accurately from underground, with a bank loan at a time when banks weren’t lending. More impressive is the fact that he did it shortly after September 11, 2001, having left his job and lost his home on September 11. Mr. Kapur’s firm provided investors excellent absolute and relative returns for over a decade.
After a long and substantial period of prosperity for Kapur’s fund’s investors, and during the worst banking and economic crisis in US history, Mr. Kapur made the selfless and great accomplishment of having sacrificed all his and his company’s hard-earned resources for the benefit and protection of investors (which he had no obligation whatsoever to do). Kapur displayed immense fortitude and tenacity during this period and tirelessly worked gratis for investors. Kapur maintains excellent relations with most of his former investors, many of whom have a passion for the arts, and continues to consult his main clients who are grateful for his invaluable advice.
Chetan is a conscientious person and his admirable selflessness and integrity has only served to substantially raise the interest and demand for his beautiful paintings, photography and artwork.
Much of Chetan’s sketches, drawings, paintings and photography are done en plein air due to his love for the outdoors and to more accurately capture the appearance of outdoor settings in various light and weather conditions. Chetan finds that working outdoors allows one to capture natural light, shade and color, and that to seize the true feel or impression of an outside setting at a specific moment one has to be outside to do so rather than just work on an outside setting in their studio. Chetan displays true mastery in his painting approach with his wonderful use of textures, tonality and colours, yet, he sometimes maintains a childlike quality in his artwork that masters often strive towards. Kapur’s photography besides for its aesthetic pleasure often strives to capture the essence or soul of the subject matter involved making it wonderfully inspirational. Chetan’s artwork, in keeping with his own spirit, is full of hope, light and love.
Chetan is inspired by not only what he finds visually appealing including the beauty of Mother Nature and beyond but also beauty found in feelings, music, imagination, memories and within the human spirit, inter alia.
Chetan Naveen Kapur’s artworks are part of many private collections and select public collections around the globe. They lovingly adorn the walls and halls of prominent estates, leading corporate offices, luxurious hotels, public hospitals and schools, among others. Chetan’s art continues to be exhibited in galleries (including Discovering Beauty Art Gallery), art fairs and other venues worldwide.