Mahak Sethia

About

Mahak Sethia (2001, born in India) graduated with a BA in Contemporary Art Practice from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, and an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London.

Mahak’s practice centres on the quiet tension between stillness and becoming. For her, painting is not a resolution but a process—an unfolding dialogue with materials, time, and the layered emotional undercurrents that shape human experience. Each work begins in the space between thought and feeling, where silence is not absence, but presence made perceptible.

Drawn to the overlooked pauses of everyday life—the ticking of a clock, the hum of thoughts, the rhythm of a heartbeat—Mahak explores how these quiet intervals hold space for reflection, recognition, and transformation. Her paintings invite viewers to slow down, to inhabit a moment suspended in time, and to notice what usually slips past in the rush of movement.

Through a language that blends intimacy with ambiguity, Mahak constructs compositions that feel both personal and open-ended. Her work investigates the subtle interdependencies that bind us—to ourselves, to others, and to the natural world. Each painting becomes a site of emotional resonance—where questions linger, meaning unfolds gradually, and the act of looking becomes a form of listening.

Rather than seeking finality, she embraces the unfinished. Her paintings remain poised in a state of pause, like sentences waiting for their next word—alive with potential and uncertainty. In this way, her practice reflects an ongoing commitment to process, presence, and the quiet complexity of becoming.