A timeless, meditative journey through colors and textures of the mind, body, and soul…seeking a nurturing symbiosis with nature.
As a visual artist, Spriha Gupta strives to bring organic forms onto canvas through mixed media. Her primary source of inspiration is nature in all its forms. She repurposes found objects and gives them a second life in most of her pieces. Maintaining the balance of nature is the core of her existence, and she expresses this need through her art. We all can see the effects of climate change, and she argues it is for every individual to be aware and process the harmful effects of global warming to work towards a better future for future generations. This way, she hopes to maintain a world full of color rather than encouraging a grey, lifeless future.
Spriha creates constructive art to highlight the beauty and diversity of nature while emphasizing the importance of taking action to make social and environmental change. She is passionate about raising awareness on topics such as mass consumerism and its detrimental impact on climate change and works to intertwine these concepts into her artwork. She tries to express the urgent need for humans to help protect, grow, and fight to sustain the fragile ecological balance in the world.
Each piece created has a story or a message invoking a memory of familiarity for the onlooker, urging them to have a dialogue with the works. The importance of the “reduce and recycle” method to life is expressed through her pieces like the “Logged Out” series, which, while enhancing the beauty of the textures found on trees, also showcases the fragility caused by global deforestation. In her Second Life series, “Trapped,” is a window into how human greed and the waste it generates leads to water pollution. The “Melting” series focuses on the sad reality of melting ice caused by rising temperatures- a manmade disaster.
Spriha uses textures and layering different materials as her art medium on a base of acrylic paints. She has a unique way of cohesively marrying these materials, be it modeling paste, gels, tree bark, cheesecloth, or paper. These give her pieces depth and fluidity — expressing her love for nature and the people inhabiting the happy space together. As she steps into her studio and paints on her blank canvas, ideas flow naturally and take on different forms from nature. She might be inspired by the oceans, their depth, vastness, and serenity, leading her to attempt capturing these emotions through blue skies, water, grainy sands, and blowing grass. It’s almost like the paintings are speaking to you, urging you to delve deeper into the layers we wear as humans on an existential level. The process of painting, tearing, gluing, and layering is very meditative and calming. She loses herself for hours, adding textures and colors and almost dancing along with the piece itself, looking at it from time to time as an outsider yet so involved that the painting becomes her.
She hopes to leave you with sublime happiness while encouraging awareness about taking action in our world. Her colors and textures draw you in, and one feels like they are stepping into the painting and becoming one with it. Spriha has exhibited her works globally and also has her works in private collections across the world. She works out of her studio at Princeton Makes, an artist cooperative in Princeton. She loves the energy and community of the space and enjoys the opportunity to be a part of community mural projects and workshops. She has hosted talk shows on artists during COVID-19 to help bridge the gap between the general public and the artists. She also plans to do workshops with the visually impaired, which she feels very strongly about.
Spriha loves to share her creations with the world, be the storyteller, and host workshops to further emphasize her passion for environmental awareness. Keep up with her on Instagram.
