Piyaali’s art is born from nostalgia, longing and belonging, introspection, self-realization, and connection to nature. Her work is guided by her own experiences and forces that have molded her identity , nostalgia, effects of immigration on her own life, diaspora and migration, motherhood, spirituality, and the faces of climate change in the places she has lived.
She draws inspiration from her roots in India, her life in the United States and background in architecture. Her work intends to engage the viewer as a witness of history, traditions using inspirations from Indian mythology. She superimposes the traditional figurative drawings, geometric forms and symbolism with modern geometric expressionism creating a cyclical journey that joins the past to the present. Merging conscious storytelling and symbolism to the subconscious realm of abstract expressionism. She draws inspiration from two different styles: early Bengal School of Painting and Geometric Abstraction creating her own hybrid style reflecting on her own hybrid identity. She makes figurative drawings within a geometric composition. In her paintings she converges the East to the West, the spiritual and the aesthetic, the ancient philosophy and iconography to modern narratives.
Her preferred media are acrylic paint on canvas for paintings/collages and uses black India ink and watercolor for works on paper.
Her collections explores effects of climate change in the places she has lived, diaspora, environmental and Eco migration, hybrid identities and gender egalitarianism.