Shimanie Shareef (a.k.a Manie)

Shimanie Shareef is a Maldivian multi disciplinary visual artist and art instructor.

With her background in Art Teaching and working as a designer and illustrator, she strives to represent the complexities of cultural fusion and historical legacies in whatever medium she works in. Often combining a variety of mediums and techniques her style is nuanced by a range of inspirations. The personal edge that she brings to each of her works alters and enhances recognizable subject matter, cultivating an imaginative visual experience.

When it comes to painting, she utilizes color and contrasts to evoke emotions while provoking thought, both visually and conceptually. Her brush strokes are bold; her sense of color is vibrant. She arrives conceptually through ardent research of pertinent subject matter considering the work’s final environment.

She also offers a multi-disciplinary studio practice, in Male’, Creative Jous -that looks into the manifestation of self-discovery and collective care as a means of Art Education and Art Therapy for people of all ages. She recently completed the mural for Oaga’s main restaurant.

She designs and paints murals as one of the types of works she enjoys the most and believes it leaves an extension of herself for the viewer’s emotional response that one may find through observance of the piece, to an alternative way of understanding the subject matter.