Hemali Vadalia Where The Light Falls Gently

Subcontinent is delighted to present Where the Light Falls Gently, the debut solo exhibition of Hemali Vadalia (b. 1984), featuring a suite of autobiographical paintings that are based on life both lived and imagined. Made slowly over the past two years, these works invite us to linger with the artist, her memories, and the quiet power of paying attention.

Trained in academic realism at ateliers in Florence and New York, Hemali is used to spending months scrutinizing anatomical details of studio models. While she credits the ateliers for her skill, in these pictures, Vadalia paints from memory, not life, tending to a diary of unremarkable yet intimate moments: making kombucha, harvesting karela from a window garden, or visiting the doctor. Her subjects are people within reach: herself, her parents, an old school friend, the woman who cooks for her family. Their presence, rendered in finely layered oil washes, feels simultaneously specific and universal.

'These are not heroic times, her paintings seem to say. They are times in which we long to heal, to feel loved, to simply be seen. Hemali restores that service—the slow gaze, the willingness to be witness to one’s own life and of those around her.' Says Dhwani Gudka, co-founder of Subcontinent.

Vadalia’s work stands apart from much of contemporary figurative painting in both form and intent. Trained at the Grand Central Atelier in New York after brief stints in Florence, Vadalia honed her practice with the rigour of a violinist or athlete—through repetition, precision, and attention. Her earliest work included frame-by-frame animation on Loving Vincent, the hand-painted biopic of Van Gogh.

Her compositions, her palette and even titles such as Sunflower Field nimbly quote artists such Millais, Van Gogh and Salman Toor and yet she resists virtuosity for its own sake, instead turning towards the emotional and domestic.

Unlike many of her peers, Vadalia’s work is not concerned with identity politics, irony, or spectacle. Instead, she reaches inward, constructing an auto-fictional world from moments pulled from memory, quiet aches, and everyday rituals. Having survived cancer in her thirties, she paints with the wisdom of someone who has lived through fragility and emerged with a deep, slow hunger for peace.

Hemali Vadalia (b. 1984)
Hemali Vadalia is a painter based in Mumbai. She initially studied engineering and began her career as a software developer and studied animation at IIT Bombay, where she first learned about the old masters. After attending art academies in Florence, she received a scholarship to the Grand Central Atelier in New York, where she trained in classical painting techniques. Her work focuses on autobiographical narratives rooted in care, healing, domestic life and rituals. Where the Light Falls Gently is her first solo exhibition at Subcontinent.

The artist deconstructed her work for us, and took us through her creative practice. 

Where the Light Falls Gently
I maintain a diary of ideas for paintings. I didn’t do it deliberately at the time, but looking at this show these were mostly moments of rest and self-care that pass us by if we don’t pay attention to them. I have a process of working out the composition in drawings and colour studies before committing to a large painting. Depending on how clear the idea is in my head, the scale and complexity of what I am depicting, each work can take from a few weeks to a few months. Most of these works have been made in the last year but there are a few early pieces as well that I was keen to share.

The Practice
The paintings are referencing past memories, they are not literal translation of reality, but they are composed and constructed with reference images. I had been looking at how Gauguin, Matisse and Paula Modersohn-Becker constructed their works. I wanted to introduce more colour in my paintings and studying the works of impressionist artists really helped me get there. I was always interested in storytelling, but looking at Salman Toor's work I learned how to turn an event into an image. How to use the art history, how to look at history.
 
I want to foreground the fleeting feeling of these moment and in making these paintings, I am learning to tweak the realism – anatomy, perspective, palette etc. – to achieve that feeling. I am learning what to keep and what to let go of, from the abundance of information that we have in front of us.

The Inspiration
I think when your body makes you slow down, you ask yourself what is it that is really important. I didn’t paint as much then, but I knew what I wanted to paint if I would paint. I don’t chase certain things with the same drive as once I used to. Life became so slow that you find comfort in seemingly quiet activities.
 
I was in Dhamma Shikhar, Dharamkot, for 10 days Vipassana. There I would watch monkeys care for their family, it would bring so much joy and my heart was so full. Maybe it was being so close to nature, in the mountains.. meditation and discourses helped as well. If only we make time to quiet the mind, we can truly find so much joy in simple things. Gardening, sitting in the park, reading, listening to podcasts for hours, movies, embroidery, cooking, cleaning, all the daily tasks helped me centre myself, while the world was very busy and moving fast. For this show I wanted to paint a little bit from that experience. But also I wanted to assure those who have gone through what I have gone through that nothing stays the same. Good times pass, bad times pass as well. It is important to figure out a coping mechanism, and art helped me in that regard. 

The Episodes
I maintain a journal where I would write down if there is anything interesting that has happened or if I have seen something that could potentially be a good painting subject. So some of the paintings are from there. In the painting called Kombucha, some parts are painted from life and some parts of the kitchen are imagined. For figures I use references. Birthday party was a painting when I had decorated the home for my dad’s 81st birthday and I think that moment was special, especially having survived heavy stuff as a family, I thought it would make a happy picture and I wanted to paint it like a good happy memory in my head.

Where the Light Falls Gently is on display until 11th September, 2025 at Subcontinent, Mumbai. 

Words Hansika Lohani 
Date 21-8-2025