Featured Artist of the Month : Madhini Nirmal Mar. 2016 | TheArtList - Art & Photo Calls for Visual Artists and Photographers.

Madhini Nirmal

New York, NY

Madhini Nirmal is a young artist from Chennai, South India. She holds a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts (specialization: painting). Her paintings and drawings are predominantly inspired by ecological and biographical ideas. She currently resides in New York City, where she is pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College.

How and when did you start creating art?

Drawing was my favorite fun activity as a kid and I am grateful I could follow it as a career choice.

What media and genres do you work in?

I make a lot of drawings, some paintings and at times dabble in sculpture. I am presently trying printmaking for the first time.

Who or what are your influences?

I look at Francisco Goya a lot; his depictions of horror, the dark and the unpleasant are a sure influence. A recent Chelsea show in I had seen of Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruckyre also made me think about manipulating light and texture towards eliciting an evocative response.

I grew up in a dry scrub forested area in southern India. I also did my schooling in an institution that valued the environment, where we grew our own food. I engaged in turtle conservation in college. Nature, the wild and animals are key to defining a habitat or a home for me. The divorce of mankind from the entire spectrum of planetary species and our exploitation of it is my primary concern and informs my work.

What was your inspiration for Cannot Speak But Draws?

The piece was inspired by personal struggles I face with a speech problem. Verbal communication has always been one I have not been comfortable with, one that has not been a constant in my life. Art, I suppose, gives me a voice and making the piece was in someway cathartic for me.

Describe your creative process?

An experience or knowledge of something that I find worrying, unjust and sad enables me to begin in the studio. I try to then translate this mental image to a visual form that best breathes the concern.