Pankaja Sethi is a textile designer, artist and researcher working with Adivasi women and weavers of Odisha over fourteen years. She studied Textile Designing National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi and MA in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
PANKAJA SETHI is a brand of contemporary hand-woven textiles inspired from local traditions combining design language, craft and innovation together. PANKAJA textiles are aesthetically simple and modern with contemporary appeal made by weavers in Odisha.
The journey of Pankaja sethi started with recreating, reviving and reinterpreting traditional forms into contemporary textiles. Her experimentation on running unstitched fabric with diverse vocabularies and fluid drapes across rural and semi-urban spaces of India is creating a space for the new audience that is interested in nuances of lost tradition and participate in creating transition adapted from Indian traditions.
In 2019 Pankaja Sethi exhibited her textile art work at the Fabric of Being exhibition at the Nairobi Summit, ICPD supported by UNFPA along with Asia- Africa artist on womens sexuality and symbolism titled The Flaming Womb. National Alliance of Women in Bhubaneswar awarded her on the International Womens Day for her outstanding work with handloom weavers. Pankaja Sethi showcased her design collection Odisha Weaves in Lakme Fashion week 2018. She created textile art work titled The Reflection of Time & Nature for the public art project Bhubaneswar Art Trail in 2018.
She is recipient of Ministry of Culture fellowship 2018-20, Sahapedia-UNESCO fellowship 2017-18 on Kerang-The Bark cloth of Gadaba Adivasi women , Nehru Trust for the Indian Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum on Kotpad Adivasi Natural dye Textiles (2009-10), Ganth ra Katha- The Quilting tradition of Ganjam (2015-16) and The Bark Cloth of Mahima Dharma ( 2017-18), and National Folklore Support Centre Tata Fellowship on Dongria Kondh Textiles 2012-13. She was selected for the first Asian Feminism and Transnational Activism, Ewha Global Empowerment Program- Ewha Womans University, Seoul in 2012, among 22 women leaders of Asia.
