Smitha M. Babu with Gulam Mohammad Shekh.
Smitha M. Babu’s solo exhibition A Choreography in Deep Green was held at Vadehra Art Gallery from April 23 to May 15, 2026. Two aspects are especially significant in Smitha Babu’s art: her colour palette and the scale of her paper. Working primarily in watercolour, she draws upon folk life and its memories as her central subject. A large portion of the picture plane often remains almost empty, while near the centre appear a few human figures. These images include dancing women, travellers, and occasionally domesticated animals. The environment is distinctly rural and somewhat muted, devoid of overt brilliance. Whatever luminosity exists belongs to life itself — diminished perhaps, yet still pointing toward the profound importance of existence.
Her conception of life and her worldview become apparent through the structure of her paintings, even though they are not overtly narrative. Symbolism plays a stronger role in her work. At the compositional level, one can observe the influence of miniature painting traditions. Spatial division is also an important element in her visual language. Her paintings contain traces of folk art and folk culture, while several works portray social structures and others evoke contradictory or paradoxical imaginings.
Amid dense green trees in shades resembling moss and pistachio, the sky appears to be constantly forming and dissolving. Clouds emerge like amoebic shapes, appearing and disappearing in fluid forms. These forms resemble fragments of emotions and thoughts in motion. In life, something is always happening — something is being created while something else fades away — and Smitha’s art continuously records this process.
Within these landscapes, groups of women, mostly dressed in saris, are often shown dancing hand in hand, while occasionally a man wearing a mundu appears carrying fish, tools, or balloons. Their dance movements are light and joyful, as self-awareness dissolves into a vibrant connection between body, landscape, and the mystical flow of time. In most paintings, the clothing of both women and men is predominantly white.
In Smitha M. Babu’s paintings, one encounters not only a sense of collective consciousness but also glimpses of an individual’s inner awareness. While the compositional framework reflects the influence of miniature painting, the themes themselves are distinctly contemporary. Her works seem to stand at the intersection of past and present.
At first encounter, the viewer notices borderless, irregularly shaped frames that mimic the fluidity between land and sea. Within these spaces, narrative patterns emerge through movement and rhythm, visually drawing upon mythological traditions to express a collective memory threatened by transformation. Babu presents an image of femininity and community rooted in Kerala’s expansive rural landscapes, where matrilineal traditions, women-led labour, and ecological interconnectedness shape the complex inheritance of local culture.
Her paintings are constructed within a compressed perspective that, no matter how closely one approaches, maintains a peculiar sense of distance — as though excessive proximity might disturb the fragile events unfolding within the scene.
-By Dr Ved Prakash Bhardwaj
All images courtesy of Vadehra art gallery, New Delhi.
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