Mysterious Painting

Shelina Khimji is a Tanzanian award winning self taught artist and a qualified accountant, drawn to art since her childhood. Over a decade long career, she has been featured on CNN style for her lockdown artwork submitted to a Dubai based Art Studio. She has exhibited in World Art Dubai 2020 as the only Tanzanian artist, and was featured in The National UAE and Art & Lusso Magazine. Modern Renaissance, an online magazine featured her profile and artworks in one of their issues as well as The Citizen Tanzania for participating in the Rotaracts, Colours Of Hope Exhibition. She was selected to represent Tanzania amongst women selected from 115 countries in the women’s day exhibition organized by ZeeArts Gallery in Dubai on the theme “rise to rejoice," and Rangi Gallery in Tanzania to participate in the exhibition with the theme - ode to women. She has been a regular participant in the East African Art Biennale, a two time finalist in the New York and Los Angeles Coffee Art Project, a mentor and award winner at her local community art events, while her sketchbook has toured USA and Canada for being a participant in The Sketchbook Project. She had the honour to participate in a live talk show hosted by the Ahlulbait Tv, an Islamic channel in UK, whose topic was art and the purpose it serves. Colour and realism is her powerful symbolism as it reflects her happy persona and her ideal world imagery. She has a natural knack for drawing and her style is impressionistic since she loves giving an inkling to evoke her viewers emotions and imagination to her artworks. Her theme often portrays culture with a contemporary feel. She does sketches, abstracts, figurative art, sceneries and perspective art with oils, acrylics, graphite and charcoal as her standard media. She loves to challenge herself and try different media as well. Since her strength lies in the contemporary feel she has given to Tanzanian art, she lets her art speak for the values she holds when it comes to the preserving the environment and recognising the less privileged. She loves to depict the old and the ancient look and evoking nostalgia and romantic feelings in her artworks by the misty effect she loves to give in her artworks. She tries to capture her fantasies, a memory, a thought, a longing, the glimpse of the world through rose tinted glasses, underprivileged people and typical narrow streets.