Maria Qamar

Maria Qamar (born 1991

Early life Maria was born in Karachi, Pakistan, to a father from Bangladesh and a mother from Gujarat, India. Both parents are chemists. The family then moved to Mississauga, where she spent the rest of her childhood. She has a brother who became a doctor. She gained popularity as an artist through her Instagram page where she goes by the name of Hatecopy (the name indicating her feelings for her former field). She began showing her art in unconventional settings, such as bars. As of 2019 she had a following of over 170,000 people on her Instagram platform. She had also created murals, signs, and menu and plate designs for restaurants in various North American cities. Her style is explicitly influenced by the work of Roy Lichtenstein and also by low culture such as Indian soap operas; one of her first works was captioned "what if Lichtenstein parodied Indian soap operas."

In 2022, she had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, entitled Dhamakedar, Superstar!, that concerned a literally starry-eyed young woman who was in love with an unnamed celebrity.