Ode to Asmi

"As breath drew near, he felt upon himself the full longing for selfhood"

Ode to Asmi is a surrealist piece that explores the transcendant liberation that comes with radical self-acceptance.
Asmi is the declaration of self-existence as ultimate truth in Indic philosophy. It explores breaking free from the imposed fictions of a society concerned with the prose of holy men and the accumulation of wealth.
Asmi resembles my own journey as an artist and as a young individual navigating a world obsessed with external fictions, This piece ultimately celebrates queer liberation, and the existential journey that comes from it. In this scene, the cloud-filled sky alludes to the internal soaring of the Self, while the roots and blossoms ground him as symbols of past pain and joy.

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I am a Sydney-based oil painter whose work blends mythic symbolism, identity and contemporary surrealism. My paintings draw on South Asian storytelling, Renaissance lighting and themes of longing, identity and transformation. Through the oil medium I explore the space between vulnerability and power, often portraying figures moving between fire, devotion and the quiet pull of their inner worlds.

My practice focuses on creating large, emotionally rich works that invite viewers into intimate and symbolic narratives. Each painting develops slowly over time, allowing light, skin and texture to take shape with depth and quiet intensity.

I explore identity, culture and mysticism through a blend of Renaissance-inspired surrealism and South Asian mythic language. Surrealism, for me, is a way of fragmenting and reshaping external reality to give more weight to the inner one. It allows emotion, memory and imagination to guide the world of the painting. I hope to continue growing in this direction as I develop a body of mythic and personal work from my studio in Sydney.