Hema Upadhyay was an artist, a critic and a friend

Mumbai's art fraternity held a memorial meeting for the late contemporary artist and recalled the wonderful moments they shared with her

The art community of Mumbai came together yesterday evening at a South Mumbai gallery to share memories of late artist Hema Upadhyay. The somber setting of the memorial meeting was lightened by recollections of better times that people had shared with Hema, who was found murdered on December 12 along with her lawyer Harish Bhambhani.

Hema Upadhyay

Flanked by a larger-than-life projection of Hema on a brick wall, speakers spoke of her various avatars—an artist, a critic and a friend. While acclaimed painter Lalita Lajmi spoke of their friendship by reminiscing about a night-out with Hema and her husband Chintan Upadhyay for a meal of authentic Chinese in Hong Kong, art collector Mukeeta Jhaveri spoke of the solace she drew from watching Hema at work. “Painterly” and “painstakingly-done” is how Jhaveri described the artist’s works.

Atul Dodiya, Nancy Adjania, Abhay Maskara, Archana Hande as well as the mother and brother of Hema Upadhyay were part of this get-together. Some also offered their condolences through their friends despite being in absentia, such as Dr Bhau Daji Lad’s Honorary Director Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, who plans to exhibit Hema’s works in 2016.

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