Manik Raj Nakra

March 13 – May 1, 2021

A G R A, 2020, Oil paint, ceremonial bindis on canvas and wood, 86 x 79 in.

"Nature is taking back Venice."

"The Himalayas are visible from India for the first time in 30 years."

"In Thailand, tourist-free beaches have lured record numbers of rare turtles to breed."

Inspired by stories of nature regenerating and reclaiming space during the Covid19 pandemic, W I L D L I F E examines what happens when humanity removes itself from the natural world. The exhibition also introduces a new material for the artist—the ceremonial bindi, worn for centuries on the forehead in Indian culture for spiritual, traditional, and fashion reasons. It can be seen as a third eye creating an opening to infinity or as a symbol of femininity. For the natural world depicted in the paintings, the renewed and rejuvenated flora and fauna are anthropomorphized with hundreds of bindis as wildlife reincarnated with third eyes. The twinkling of the jeweled bindis carry remnants of memory. The severed animal heads from which the new nature grows are depicted upside down to represent self-sabotage and the mistakes of the past.

Influenced by the architecture of ancient forts and palaces of Indian Mughals, Iran, Oman, and Pakistan, the paintings are installed in window frames handmade by the artist. The pieces look out onto a world from isolation with new wonder, new honesty, and new beauty. At first, the viewer encounters these windows from the “inside looking out” but with bindis all over functioning as eyes, they equally become the “outside looking in” giving the paintings an existential feel to reflect on these uncertain times and space.

Manik Raj Nakra’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas and San Francisco, a member of the 2019 Crit Group program with The Contemporary in Austin, TX, The LINE Residency with Big Medium in 2020, and a client list that includes Converse, The Oxford American, The LINE Hotel, Facebook, Urban Outfitters, amongst others.

S H I V A, 2021, Oil paint, acrylic paint, spray paint, metallic pigment, burlap, glitter, ceremonial bindis on canvas and wood, 74 x 53 in.

C H O S E N, 2020, Oil paint and ceremonial bindis on canvas and wood, 98 x 67 in.

M O T H, 2020, Oil paint, ceremonial bindis, collage on canvas and wood, 98 x 67 in.

D R E A M, 2020, Oil paint, acrylic paint, patina-ed gold leaf, ceremonial bindis, collage on canvas and wood, 83 x 71 in.

LOTUS EYES, 2020, Charcoal, graphite, oil pastel on vintage japanese rice paper, 17 x 20.5 in. — *LOTUS EYES*, 2020, Charcoal, graphite, oil pastel on vintage japanese rice paper, 17 x 20.5 in.

Artist Statement

The paintings, drawings, and installations of Manik Raj Nakra take on the possibility of addressing the ancient world as his own. A world of teeming jungles where four headed leopards perch on old world ruins and silver teethed monkeys pray for our salvation. Nakra’s work applies a contemporary lens onto Indian iconography, colonial anachronisms, artifacts from early civilizations, and mythologies of ancient cultures to explore themes such as power, lust, ceremony, and self-sabotage. These themes, handled with wild colors, striking graphics, aged materials, pattern, and stark compositions, illuminate the historically rooted, but contemporarily relevant narratives on the beauty, paranoia, devotion, and revelation of his time and place.

His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas and San Francisco, a member of the 2019 Crit Group program with The Contemporary in Austin, TX, The LINE Residency with Big Medium in 2020, and a client list that includes Converse, The Oxford American, The LINE Hotel, Facebook, Urban Outfitters, amongst others.

manikrajnakra.com