Biography

Jemila Modesti, Argentinean artist, born the 9th of October of 1980 in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, where she spent most of her childhood.

She grew up around her mother’s oil paints and printing inks, Norma Bogado, Argentinean artist, who attended the School of Fine Arts of Rome ( Scuola delle Belle Arti) and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the- Fields in London. Xylography and German expressionism were her passion. Her father Orlando Modesti Architect and Landscaper.

Jemila, started to travel with her mother since a very young age. Lived part of her teenage years in Argentina, and later on in Italy where she attended the Liceo Atistico of Latina.

Her life took a big turn when she returned to Nigeria. There she worked with various Nigerian Artists such as Victor Adamu using the Yoruba painting techniques and Hausa ceramic techniques, as well as the lost wax techniques from the Tuareg people of Niger.

After her secondary school, she studied Jewellery design and manufacturing, in the Lebanese Jewellery Institute of design in Beirut, Lebanon. She also learned pottery and Raku in the Atelier de Natalie Khayat, Lebanese Artist.

Her years in Lebanon profoundly marked her artistic vision, it shaped the way in which she perceives beauty, in its most pure and impermanent form.

She lived for some time in South Africa before moving to Argentina, where her artistic "search" begun.

In the past couple of years she transitioned towards abstract art, drawing inspiration from the Master Gerhard Richter who floats between abstract and figurative art she began to walk the winding road towards abstractism. Influenced by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Chu Teh-Chun.

Since 2011 she lives in Istanbul, Turkey.