Manish Kumar Rao

Manish Kumar Rao’s meticulous paintings promise viewers a phantasmagorical journey through imaginary lands populated by strange architectural forms, metallic beings, and dreamlike situations. The artist here is a raconteur, spinning fables that reach into his own subconscious to create a palimpsest effect. Rao cunningly hides objects within objects and tales within tales in his colourful works. His stories are divined from diverse sources, such as childhood narrations of kingly valour to contemporary social crisis, and clamour for attention from within the claustrophobic space of the drawings. Although Rao confesses admiration for artist Bosch, one can also trace influences of surrealists such as Escher and Dali and of indigenous metal crafts and sculptures of India, keeping the artist and his works rooted within a modernist disposition. An alumnus of the College of Art Delhi, Rao is a recipient of several awards and has numerous exhibitions and art projects to his credit. Born in 1972, Manish Rao Jwade lives and works in Delhi, India.