Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | Feb 2023

Art that aims at depicting
the inner soul and deep
feeling in humanity that is
not easy to express using
words
“Hyper-realistic drawings seduce the viewer into a
world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that
articulates the stream of daily events” says Ramadhan
Hamisi.
- Exclusive to Magzoid
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
His drawings directly
respond to the surrounding
environment and use
everyday experiences from
the artist as a starting
point.
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.
-feature@magzoid.com
www.magzoid.com February 2023
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