14 August – 11 September 2025, Subcontinent, Mumbai
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 Sudka, 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.
About the Gallery
Subcontinent is a Mumbai-based art gallery committed to expanding the canon of South Asian art by showcasing artists and legacies that challenge received narratives. Founded by Dhwani Gudka and Keshav Mahendru, Subcontinent is a space of inquiry, storytelling, and cross-generational dialogue, where overlooked voices are brought into public view with care and conviction. Subcontinent’s inaugural exhibition was Haku Shah: Ya Ghat Bheetar, Rediscovering Form curated by Jesal Thacker. This was followed by Fifty Years of Magical Thinking, 1960s-2000s. The gallery represents Hemali Vadalia and the Estate of Haku Shah. Subcontinent is located in Mumbai’s historic Fort precinct.
Featuring Image Courtesy: Subcontinent
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