India, rendered new

Painter · New Delhi

Manoj Kumar Paswan (b. 1982, Rupauli, Bihar) lives and works in New Delhi, where he studied painting at Jamia Millia Islamia, earning his Bachelor's in 2005 and Master's in Fine Arts in 2007. His practice, gathered under the ongoing series Empty Desires, moves from the rivers, ponds and monsoon skies of his Bihar childhood toward the migrant labour that sustains Delhi's expanding skyline — anonymous figures, ants and repeating circles standing in for the endless, overlooked work that a city runs on. He paints primarily in acrylic on paper and canvas, building symbolic, often hybrid figures that let individual stories become collective ones. Paswan held his solo exhibition, Empty Desires, at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, in 2018, and has shown widely in group exhibitions including at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; the India Habitat Centre and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; and World Art Dubai. He works from his studio at Garhi Studios, East of Kailash, New Delhi.

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