Hema Upadhyay was born in Baroda in 1972. She completed her B.F.A. (Painting) in 1995 and M.F.A. (Painting) in 1997 from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda.

Upadhyay was the recipient of a National Scholarship from the Ministry of Human Resources, and also has to her credit annual awards from the Gujarat Lalit Kala Akademi and the national Lalit Kala Akademi for her work in the 10^th International Triennial - India hosted in New Delhi. 

Hema’s work is a personal chronicle about the individual perspective of a collective experience – migration and displacement. Upadhyay’s works speak strongly of Mumbai (where she lives and works), a teeming, multi-cultural and confrontational city where people flock to, in pursuit of their aspirations. Her works use two medias - photography and painting. The self-images are integrated with the gouache, acrylic and graphite paintings on paper to engage with the hopes and exigencies of urban living.

Her solo shows include Underneath, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai in 2004, The Nymph and the Adult, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia in 2001-2002. she has participated in various group shows like Parallel Realities-Asian Art Now, The 3^rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK 2006, ‘Indian Summer’ Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France in 2005, ‘Concepts and Ideas’, Cima Art Gallery Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata in 2004, Parthenogenesis, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia in 2003, 10^th International Triennale- India, Rabindra Bhawan Gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi in 2001, 4th International Print Biennial, Bhopal (1997).

Hema lives and works in Mumbai.