“Hyper-realistic drawings seduce the viewer into a world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events”
Ramadhan Hamisi, a Tanzanian artist who was born in 1990, is well known for his incredibly lifelike portraits of both people and animals. Ramadhan takes a conceptual approach and welcomes the visitor into a continuous state of equilibrium and the space that articulates the flow of daily happenings. He first drew when he was six years old. Pencils and paper, along with what he could afford, served as his starting point for forging his new artistic identity. Ramadhan won various events while in primary and secondary school as evidence of it.
Ramadhan attended Kenyatta University to study finance and economics. He studied economics, but his artwork was always excellent. He didn’t want to study painting since he thought it would be boring if he took it too seriously. He regarded painting as a pastime and wanted it to stay that way. He made an effort to leave this artistic path, but he couldn’t help but feel lured back to art.
He decided to devote his attention to his artwork and advance his profession as an artist shortly after graduating from university and starting to teach at a tiny college called Sketchmasta Art in 2016. He held his first solo exhibition in 2019 named SELF ESTEEM at Knext Art Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa.
The pandemic enabled his work to spread, for he prefers to work in the peace of his studio. This was an opportunity for him to pause and concentrate on his growth as a self-taught artist. Ramadhan has been actively working on his series of large-format Charcoal drawings for the past few years. In 2022, he had a group exhibition at Pen Project in Miami, followed by a solo exhibition at Galerie Felix Holler in Austria.
In his art, charcoal is primarily used. He adores the look and feel that it generates. Before beginning the actual artwork, he develops a certain idea. He searches for a model and snaps pictures to bring the idea to life. Near pals make up the majority of his muses. He is highly familiar with them and is aware of their weakness. To show people the soul of his muse, he must use his instruments as he works on the actual artwork because he cannot capture that with a camera.
He creates drawings that emanate cold and latent anger using graphite, charcoal, and pastel. There are times when unsettling beauty appears. He uses time-consuming techniques to produce his black-and-white artwork. His work strives to capture the underlying spirit and profound human emotion that are difficult to put through words. His artwork directly responds to its surroundings and draws inspiration from the artist’s daily experiences. These are frequently framed examples that would be overlooked in their original context.
Ramadhan Hamisi resides and works in Nairobi, Kenya, at the moment.