Malvika Kamath is a Mumbai-based contemporary artist with a fascination for living greenery. Her work reflects her childhood experience of growing up surrounded by a variety of plants in her mother’s garden. Having grown up in a rural neighbourhood, away from friends and family, her parents encouraged her to channel her boredom into a learning opportunity. With time by her side, she would often sit next to a plant, observe it, and be fascinated with every aspect of its beauty. 

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She gets her creative genes from her mother, who made sure she tried her hand at a variety of skills, including flower arrangement, embroidery, painting and music. Her love of art blossomed while she began training under a local artist at age 10. This is where she found a release, a way she could translate her obsession of the ‘living green’ into a variety of mediums: watercolors, oil, acrylic, charcoal and Indian ink. Mixing media became a second language. 

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The next big growth spurt in her art career was during her time in London, where she learned firsthand about renowned artists: their journey and obsessions, by visiting multiple museums and galleries. This growing interest was further catalysed by courses at Central Saint Martins (UAL) in Mixed Media and Experimental Drawing. Her training at Sotheby’s in Art Curation helped her get an eye for contemporary art. This experience equipped her to create and visualize the fantastical memories of the ‘living green’ she experienced as a child. 

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Today, her work is about experimenting with traditional techniques and mixing them with modern, abstract and semi-realistic forms to reflect her personality and lived experiences. It’s an ode to her mother and mother nature and the bounty it has shared and continues to share with her. Her paintings draw the viewer to relive moments of ephemeral happiness that we, as humans, feel when confronted with life outside of us.