Nikhileswar Baruah, as he continues to develop his own idiom of reference to the tropes of modern life in the metropolis, in India and globally, since so much is common to many City-Zens takes an inward journey into a mindscape of emotions and thoughts. It explores the consequences of social, economic and political happenings on the urban individual. Nikhileswar Baruah’s paintings are physical manifestations of those innermost moments of an ordinary individual. The artist’s protagonists seem to be arriving at a Zen-like state of mind, realising the true nature of things that are.

Artists are known to make contemplative journeys in their artistic process. Nikhileswar’s interpretation is clear, direct and there’s a sophisticated ease in the idiom developed over time. The result is an immediate empathetic connection that one makes with the imagery. His paintings bring about a sense of familiarity to the scenes without resorting to hyper-real visual language or reproduction of photographed images seen regularly in contemporary Indian art.