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 the mythologies of ancient cultures to explore themes such as power, lust, ceremony, and self-sabotage. These themes, handled with striking graphics, pattern, and stark compositions, illuminate the historically rooted, but contemporarily relevant narratives on imperialism, ritual, and mankind’s relationship to nature.

His work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Texas and San Francisco, participated in The LINE Residency in 2020, and was included in his first institutional museum show at The Contemporary, Austin Texas in 2021. In 2023, Nakra was the 4th artist commissioned to paint a 42ft x 102ft mural onto the facade of The Contemporary on view through Spring 2025 as part of their public mural program following internationally renown artists Deborah Roberts, Daniel Johnston, and Jenny Holzer.