Smriti Dixit is a uniquely talented artist who creates abstract mixed media artworks which include the traditional art of sewing. She acknowledges the long standing craft of sewing, undertaken by many Indian women, and simultaneously modernizes and individualizes it by incorporating uniquely created textures and patterns into her contemporary abstract color works. What is unusual and noteworthy of Dixit's artworks is that unlike many artists' geometric abstract color works, hers retain a very strong organic component. This is due to the fact that even when she repeats a pattern or texture, each individual piece is slightly different. The human element in her work is visible in the way in which each material is handled.
Unlike most other artists, Smriti Dixit’s palette is not stained by various pigments. Rather, it consists of swaths cloth in an array of textures and colours; materials that are heavy, light, transparent and opaque, some stubbornly stiff, and others that fray easily when tampered with. When an artist chooses to work in a medium so unique, one tends to wonder how Dixit manages to manipulate its content. “Cloth uses me, I don’t use it…”she says candidly.
Dixit’s way of working is basic and unfinished. Using her palette of cloth and thread, she copiously sticks and stitches her arrangements on a blank surface. She embraces the human processes of experimentation and creation, often in an effort to communicate the concepts of rebirth, recycling and renewal to her viewers. Once she feels a piece is complete, Dixit makes no attempt to tidy the surface. There is no folding-in and trimming of ends to reveal the clean edges of her canvas, nor does she conceal any tears or damage that may have occurred during the process. In a way, her weathered canvases suggest the elaborateness of her creative process.
Smriti Dixit was born in 1971. After training in classical vocal music for several years, she turned to fine arts in 1993 and completed her Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda, in 1994. Some of her solo shows include those at Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto in 2006; Triveni Gallery, New Delhi, in 2005 and 2001; Art Musings, Mumbai, in 2004; and Apparao Galleries, Mumbai, in 2001 and 1998. Dixit has also participated in a number of group exhibitions, the more recent ones being ‘Roop Adhyatma’ at Bodhi Art, Singapore in 2006; ‘Basant Show’ at Bodhi Art, New Delhi in 2006; ‘Abstract Visions’ at Galerie Muller & Plate, Munich in 2005; and ‘Performative Textures’ at the India Habitat Centre Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi in 2003.