SRIMATI PRIYADARSHINI LAL, artist, poet, art critic, curator and author, has held over a dozen solo exhibitions internationally and is the author of three acclaimed books of poetry: The Window (Writers Workshop, 1986), Six Poems and The Warriors: I Guerrieri (London, 2006).
Srimati was felicitated at a Retrospective of her paintings held at London's Nehru Centre in June 2006.
As a well-known art critic, Srimati Lal has contributed hundreds of articles on Contemporary Indian Art from the 1980's onwards to such leading newspapers and journals as The Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, The Pioneer, Tehelka, Seminar, Poetry Chain & Confluence.
Srimati Lal's seminal essay The Language of Contemporary Indian Art: Souza as Paradigm for the volume Culture, Society and Development in India (pub. Orient Blackswan Private Limited, 2009) is considered a template for a complete understanding of her artistic mentor F.N.Souza's oeuvre as the founder of India's significant Post-Independence Contemporary Art Movement.
Srimati Lal studied at Loreto House, Calcutta and later was the prestigious Ishan Scholar in English Literature standing 1st class 1st from Presidency College, Calcutta in the 1980's with an alltime-record high score in English.
Subsequently, she studied Fine Art and Film as a Narrative Form at Western Maryland College, Westminster, USA, earning a Magna Cum Laude Degree in Liberal Arts. However, she states that "attending my own self-created University of Life, Art, Reality and Letters as the Muse and Curator of F.N.Souza from January 1993 until Souza's death in my presence in Mumbai in March 2002, taught me far more than any academic degrees or social expectations ever could. As did observing my poet-visionary father and Guru P. Lal ever since my earliest childhood in Calcutta as he diligently ran his Writers Workshop as the founder of Indo-Anglian Publishing, nurturing thousands of creative talents. I owe all my creative abilities to these two real-life heroes who have been integral to my life: my father P. Lal and Souza. I also remain indebted to other spiritual mentors: Tagore, Shakespeare, Jamini Roy, Van Gogh and Matisse. Today's world seems to lack heroes. I applaud all independent, unconventional and creative humans. Being brave is more important in today's world than being 'conventionally successful' and 'correct'."