Jemisha Maadhavji

Jemisha Maadhavji is based in Leicester. She graduated with a 1st class degree in Fine Art from De Montfort University in 2018. Maadhavji is a figurative painter who explores individuals from different cultural backgrounds, personalities and genders through symbolism and narrative. Her work follows a poetic journey in which she searches for beauty. Her work is typified by bold bright colours and patterned fabric. Her paintings demonstrate a contrast between realism and expressionism, from thick textured paint to smooth delicate painting, allowing the viewers to feel the presence of the sitter.

Maadhavji quotes: "We all think of ourselves as icons in some shape or form, especially in the time of smart phones and social media. We live in the era of instant image. We feel like we want to look like a certain celebrity, by taking selfies and constantly posting them on social media. But when do we appreciate our own selves, who we are as individuals?”. Maadhavji's work develops a sense of time in the image, a unique contiguity of time, place and personality that is lost in instant media. She is not interested in painting people that everybody knows, or people who are already famous. Maadhavji says: ‘For me my models are my celebrities, my Icons. They are people I find unique’.

"I don't really think about the likeness when I’m painting them, it’s just a process of discovering who they are and how I see them and what they mean to me. This is what painting does: it discovers the subject through paint and that’s what I feel I’m doing when I am painting my subjects."

www.jemishamaadhavji.wixsite.com/painting

UKNA PROJECTS:

UKNA City Takeover: Leicester 2022