Hemali Vadalia is part of an underground cult of painters - the kind that gathers around naked bodies for months at a time, looking closely at every dimple, curve, sinew, a tuck here, a protrusion there, the light falling on an arm. Driven into the basement of the art world, their work has been overlooked as “academic.” They have survived as portrait painters, illustrators, and as anonymous studio assistants.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Hemali initially studied engineering, wrote code instead of painting. A restless streak nudged her to IIT Bombay to study animation, her ace skills led her to work on films like Loving Vincent, the hand-painted biopic of Van Gogh. After a stint at art academies in Florence, she landed at the Grand Central Atelier in New York. At the atelier, disciples taught disciples, the old craft passed dow