Sonia Kumari Sharma

My name is Sonia Kumari Sharma. I am a North Vancouver based painter, and ceramicist, and a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Incorporating gold leaf in my imagery, as a person with a South Asian background, gold carries multi-faceted historical and emotional weight. Gold signifies ceremony, divinity, and value; it is something worn, worshipped, and passed down. Using foods as focal points of imagery, my paintings explore indulgence, sensuality and the ritual of consumption. Figures and moments with food caught mid-bite, eyes closed, immersed in sensation. There is vulnerability in that surrender, but also discomfort by its tension. I want the viewer to feel both attraction to the comfort and unease. Confronting these moments of indulgence which are tender, messy, excessive, valuable and human all at once.