Artist Alpana Mittal is recipient of 2026 International Prize: The Universal Genius - tribute to Leonardo da Vinci
Bayonne artist's work highlighted at Effetto Arte Foundation’s booth for NYC Art Expo 2026
By Chilltown Blues
When Bayonne, NJ resident Alpana Mittal, aka Tejaswini, was awarded with “The Universal Genius: Tribute to Leonardo da Vinci” award by Effetto Arte Fondazione, an art foundation in Italy, she was unable to attend the ceremony in Milan, in which the recipients gathered at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci (Italy’s National Museum of Science and Technology).
But Mittal was able to attend the 2026 NYC Art Expo this past weekend, April 10-12, where her work was on display at Effetto Arte’s booth.
“I’m truly honored and deeply grateful to receive this prestigious international award from the Fondazione Effetto Arte in Italy,” Mittal said. “It still feels a bit surreal, and I’ve needed time to fully take it in ... This recognition means so much to me and inspires me to continue growing, creating, and sharing my artistic journey. Thank you, (Effetto Arte Foundation), for this incredible honor.”
Mittal didn’t apply for this award. Effetto Arte’s team searches for artists and found Mittal’s profile on the Pro Arts (artists membership community) website and looked for more on her work online, she told Chilltown Blues.
Learning more about the award was fascinating, Mittal said. “It was tribute to famous artist Leonardo da Vinci.”
da Vinci is a central figure in Italy’s “High Renaissance,” and as much for the visual/metaphorical aesthetics of his work, which has been characterized as having a humanism distinct in all people portrayed despite being produced in a time/place where most artists worked for “pious” wealth, da Vinci’s broad intellectual curiosity seems to embodies Effetto’s hopes to “counteract the intellectual flattening of our time.
“Especially in this historical moment, art needs spaces of maximum participation so that even the general public can take part in it,” they write on the English version of their website, www.effettoarte.net/?lang=en.
“When I accepted the award, I then had to submit one image of an artwork,” Mittal said.
“Om - The Meditation Mantra,” as seen in the photo above, shows the Om (ॐ), a symbol that represents both sound and mantra of “ultimate reality,” or the essence of the universe and, subsequently, consciousness in several Indian religions.
The sound may readily come to mind as part of some meditative Yoga practices.
In a low resolution image of Mittal’s ॐ piece, some of the hallmarks of her work in this vein may not be readily apparent: the texture that comes from utilizing an approach originally derived from beads in an art kit she gave to her daughter one Christmas. Mittal, who has both longtime experience in the arts via her family and institutions, has since built a body of work through this technique that is both simple and complex, often illustrating patterns and/or symbols. It all can evoke the fanciful quality of pixel artwork, with an actual canvas-full of bead-work as a base.
Mittal is a multi-media artist as well, with works just as intricate in various painting mediums; all of the main mediums she works in have subjects that range from nature to patterns to folk representation.
Pictured below is Mittal at “Dream Reflections,” a solo show of her work via the Visual Art Center of New Jersey and the Summit Public Library, on display from Jan. 3 to Feb. 26 at their gallery in the library. In the photo, the texture of Mittal’s “Om - The Meditation Mantra” is more apparent.
Learn more about Mittal’s work and see it at her website, tejaswiniart.com, and on her Instagram @tejaswini.ap, where she also posts about art shows/projects she’s taking part in.
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