Swathi Madike wins 2025 Noel Waite AO Exhibitors Award

Swathi Madike didn’t expect the moment to feel the way it did. When she was announced as the recipient of the 2025 Noel Waite AO Exhibitors Award at the Victorian Artists Society’s Artist of the Year competition, the recognition came not from a distant panel but from her peers, artists who understood her work from the inside out.

“I was surprised at how I felt,” Madike says. “Some of them are my peers, some of them have taught me, some of them are my mentors. It felt like a group of people just lifting each other up. It was really lovely.”

That sense of shared understanding sits at the heart of Madike’s practice. Born in Melbourne, Swathi Madike is a South Asian artist specialising in oil-painted portraits of multicultural individuals. Her works are grounded in classical realism, yet they feel unmistakably contemporary - quiet, intimate, and deeply human.

However, before oil paint became her primary language, Madike’s creativity took a different form. She holds an Honours degree in Industrial Design and worked as a service designer, a field focused on understanding people and designing with intention. That way of thinking never left her.

Swathi Madike receives the 2025 Noel Waite AO Exhibitors Award. Source: Instagram

“Industrial design is about creating things for people with a specific purpose in mind,” she explains. “It’s about keeping the audience in mind. It’s a collaboration.”

In portraiture, it means something similar. When Madike takes on a commission, she spends time getting to know the subject or the person commissioning the work. “What’s the purpose behind it?” she asks. “Is it a celebration? Is it to honour someone’s life? Is it a legacy they want to pass down to future generations?”

Her path into fine art was gradual. Madike’s classical training took place across Italy, France, Sydney, and Melbourne, pieced together through short courses taken between periods of work. “My education is very piecemeal,” she says. “Each teacher comes from a different lineage. That’s how art works, you learn from someone, and they pass that information down.”

Rather than seeking one definitive method, Madike embraced the variety. “The goal might be realistic painting, but there are so many ways to get there,” she says. “That’s a good thing. Art is subjective.” Those multiple approaches now give her freedom to experiment and continually push her technique.

Although she works exclusively in oil paint, Madike resists the idea that tradition should dictate meaning. “I look to tradition mainly for skill and technique,” she says. “But when it comes to who I’m painting and why, I’m looking at artists and work that’s happening around us today.”

Swathi's portrait of her Avva (Grandmother) sitting on her Pedamma’s (Aunty) porch in Bangalore. Source: Instagram

That perspective is what makes her portraits feel rooted in the present. Painting people as they are, in this era, is enough to make the work contemporary. She also embraces modern tools, using her iPad and Procreate to sketch and plan compositions. “We have access to technology now,” she says. “It’s important to use whatever resources are available to us. Artists back then didn’t have these tools.”

Trying to replicate the past too closely, she believes, risks losing authenticity. “As long as you’re using all the tools to express what you want, and it’s genuinely your ideas in your work, that’s the most important thing.”

Portraiture, for Madike, is no longer about power or status. “Traditionally, portrait paintings were predominantly about power and social status,” she reflects. “But now we can choose what portraits mean for us. They can be more everyday.”

That shift is central to her focus on painting people of colour within classical realism. While representation is important, Madike is careful not to simplify her intentions. “My goal is to express stories and concepts that have more complexity than just representation,” she says. “We can never fully experience someone else’s life, but sometimes there’s a cultural alignment or connection that can come through in a portrait.”

Representation also extends beyond the canvas to who feels welcome in galleries. Madike recalls inviting members of the South Asian community to her exhibitions and hearing, time and again, “I’ve never been to a gallery before.” For her, the reason is simple: “People engage with things that are interesting to them. If you don’t see yourself in all forms of media, you’re not interested.”

By painting multicultural subjects and placing them within spaces historically reserved for a narrow few, Madike hopes to expand who feels those spaces belong to. “Any media is basically saying to the public, these are stories worth telling,” she says. “These are people worth celebrating.”

As her exhibition season winds down, Madike is taking time to reflect. “I want to push my technique more,” she says. “I want to experiment.” She’s also ready to look outward, approaching foundations and organisations doing meaningful work, with the hope of creating portraits that live in public gallery spaces.

Behind it all is a quiet gratitude for the support that allowed her to arrive here. Growing up, creativity was never discouraged. “We were allowed to make a mess,” she says, laughing. “The dining table was also the arts-and-crafts table.”

For Madike, that freedom mattered more than advice or resources. “Support is giving people space to try things,” she says. “I didn’t start painting knowing I wanted this to be a career. I just started because I liked painting.”