Mira Dayal’s background as a writer and editor is central to her artistic practice, profoundly shaping how she thinks about form and intention. “I think of visual art as a language,” she says. “You could say that I’m ‘editing’ the physical materials, immaterial concepts,and formal languages I’m working with. I manipulate systems of meaning, say other things with them, or sharpen what has been said.”

In her ongoing series “Language Objects,” Dayal creates steel sculptures that evoke tools and materials associated with writing, memory, and narrative. Through these pared-down forms, she invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and think associatively. These works consider how the histories and structures of language—from ancient seals to contemporary artificial intelligence—inform how meaning is made. In doing so, the series also creates new systems of meaning. 

Dayal’s fascination with layered meaning extends to her use of steel, a material with many associations, including architecture, infrastructure, public space, Minimalist art, and mass-produced objects. “Steel is a material we see everywhere but we don’t often think about how it is produced or worked into the forms we see it in,” she explains. The metal’s malleability

(it’s an alloy created by combining different metals into something both adaptable and structurally strong) offers a productive tension. “Steel can behave like fabric or paper while being rigid and self-supporting. This allows me to play with the spectrum between drawing and sculpture, or drawing in space, which I’ve always found exciting.”

The winner of the 2025 Fountainhead Residency Untitled Artist Prize, Dayal spent her time in Miami preparing for upcoming exhibitions and presenting her work at Untitled Art Fair with Spencer Brownstone Gallery, while also immersing herself in the city’s coastal rhythm and forging new connections within the local arts community. “It feels like I’m planting lots of seeds here, and I’m excited to see what grows,” she said.