Manish Kumar Rao’s suite of meticulous paintings promises its 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 divined from diverse sources such as childhood narrations of kingly valour to contemporary social crisis clamour for attention from within the claustrophobic space of the drawings. Although Rao confesses admiration for artists Bosch, one can also trace influences of surrealists such as Escher and Dali and that of indigenous metal crafts and sculptures of India, keeping the artists and his works rooted within a modernist disposition. An alumnus of 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 from Delhi, India.