Hema A. Bharadwaj
SOMERSET, NJ
She/ Her, Abstract artist. Watercolor, Oils and Ceramics. Mining the cosmic from day to day messes.
Message
Hema Bharadwaj (b. 1974, Bagalkot, India) searches for the cosmic in the domestic landscape of motherhood, menopause, pantries and other domains of the intimate home space. Her work utilizes painting, ceramics and printing to capture the conditions, emotions and experience of the spaces between caretaking and creation. Bharadwaj earned a BFA from JJ School of Art, Mumbai, India and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts, New York, New York. The artist has had solo shows and participated in exhibitions at the School of Visual Arts, New York; Chashama, Matawan, New Jersey; Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey; Studio 115 LB, Long Beach, California; Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, New Jersey. Bharadwaj currently lives and works in New Jersey, USA and Bangalore, India.
Statement
For the better part of a decade, I lived in a parenting cocoon, keeping art alive in sketchbooks while navigating the demands of motherhood. When I emerged, I felt compelled to share my inner landscape—one shaped by personal transformation, memory, and the rhythms of everyday life. Working with watercolors, oils, and clay, I explore the cosmic within the domestic, finding meaning in the seemingly mundane.
My work is an invitation to pause. I hope that a viewer, mid-task—perhaps while balancing a laundry basket—might notice a hidden detail, trace a ceramic groove with their finger, and feel momentarily transported or reenergized. The subjects I explore are vast yet deeply personal: the grooves of motherhood, the shifts of menopause, sacred symbols, garden weeds, compost, cluttered kitchen islands, stuffed pantries, and crumpled cotton saris. These elements, rich with metaphor, embody the play between reality and abstraction, the divine and the ordinary.
While I carry India in my very bones and have lived in many countries, New Jersey is where I call home. Here, I share my studio and life with my husband, grown children, and our gracefully aging dog. I am a teaching artist with the Arts Council of Princeton and also teach privately from my home studio, helping students of all ages find their creative voice. Through my work, I seek to capture the essence of daily life—its beauty, chaos, and spirituality—offering a space for reflection, connection, and quiet wonder.