Manoj Kumar Paswan - Is the Only Way to Save?

Description from the seller:

"India Contemporary curated by Veer Hooda" presents a rare opportunity for collectors and art lovers in Europe to acquire original works by highly established Indian contemporary artists, and to connect with one of the most vibrant and fast-growing art markets in the world.

India Contemporary is a curated initiative that brings leading Indian contemporary artists directly to European collectors. Each artist is selected personally by Veer Hooda for artistic depth, originality and long-term relevance, and each work is an original, sourced from the artist's own studio and shipped with full documentation. The programme exists because the distance between the Indian studio and the European wall has, until now, been the main thing standing between these artists and the collectors who would want them. India Contemporary closes that distance: no intermediary market, no re-sale mark-up, direct access at an early stage.

India's contemporary art scene is in an exceptional moment - dynamic, intellectual, many-voiced, and growing quickly in both global visibility and investment value. With rising interest from international collectors and institutions, this is a compelling time for European collectors to engage with Indian contemporary art at a pivotal stage of its ascent.

The works are offered exclusively by auction on Catawiki.

The works are curated in Vienna by Vijit Veer Hooda and shipped to you directly from the artist's studio in India. Buyers in the EU enjoy 0% customs duty on original works of art imported from India.

About the Artist: Manoj Kumar Paswan

Manoj Kumar Paswan (b. 5 December 1982, Rupauli, Madhubani district, Bihar) lives and works in New Delhi, where he keeps a studio at Kala Kuthir, Garhi. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting (2005) and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting (2007), both from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Artistic vision

In his own words: "Art, for me, is a way of looking beyond what is visible - to understand the histories, emotions, struggles, and silences embedded within everyday life. I am particularly drawn to those experiences that remain unnoticed or unheard, yet quietly shape the lives of individuals and communities.

My early visual language emerged from my intimate relationship with the rural landscape of my hometown in Bihar. Over time, however, my attention gradually shifted from the landscape to the people moving through it. Living in Delhi brought me into close observation of a rapidly expanding metropolis and the countless migrant workers who sustain its everyday life. I began to notice a profound contradiction: the city promises opportunity, progress, and a better future, yet many of those who construct and maintain this urban world remain invisible within it.

The circle is one of the recurring elements in my work. It represents the metropolis as a space of endless movement, aspiration, repetition, and contradiction. Yet this visual dynamism also suggests entrapment - the continuous cycle of working, moving, waiting, and hoping. The ant is another significant metaphor. Ants live collectively, work continuously, carry burdens much larger than themselves, and persist despite obstacles. They rarely attract attention, yet their collective labour sustains an entire system.

I use luminous and intense colours not simply for aesthetic effect but as carriers of psychological and emotional tension. Brightness can suggest desire, aspiration, energy, and hope, while darker or fragmented spaces introduce uncertainty, fear, exhaustion, and loss."

The paintings are not documentary. Paswan builds hybrid figures - a woman's head on a deer's body, a man's head on a winged horse, a house grown wings, a kneeling body opened to show its own skeleton - and sets them against grounds of dense repeated pattern: stacked blocks, circular discs, stencilled machines. The absence of a specific identity is deliberate. What the figures carry is what the migrant worker carries, and the ornament laid over them, drawn in fine white line, is the decoration of a village wall applied to the body of someone who has left the village behind.

Exhibitions

Solo: EMPTY DESIRES, Triveni Art Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, Mandi House, New Delhi, 3-12 August 2018.

Selected group: THE COLLECTIVE COLOUR PLATE, Argha Arts, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, July 2026 - BAM-Fest 2026, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, August 2026 - 97th All India Art Exhibition, AIFACS, New Delhi, December 2025 - TODAY, Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, November 2025 - Samagam Art Fest, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, May 2024 - 63rd National Exhibition of Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, August 2023 - OBSESSIONS, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, May 2023 - World Art Dubai, Dubai World Trade Centre, April 2019 - TODAY, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2019 - 91st All India Art Exhibition, AIFACS, New Delhi, December 2018 - Khajuraho Artmart, 2015.

Camps: Sahitya Kala Parishad, Viksit Bharat 2047, September 2025 - Lalit Kala Akademi National Camp, Shimla, April 2025 - Lalit Kala Akademi National Camp, Rani Durgavati project, Jabalpur, September 2023.

Press: The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle, Outlook, Mid-Day, Bangalore Times and Time Out Bengaluru, July 2008, on the exhibition Three Degrees of Separation.

Earlier career: Assistant Art Director on the children's television series Gali-Gali Sim Sim (2006); Assistant Director (Art), Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi (2005); Art Instructor, National Bal Bhawan, New Delhi (2003).

About the Artwork

Artist: Manoj Kumar Paswan
Name: Is the Only Way to Save?
Year: 2024
Size: 92 x 92 x 5 cm
Technique: Acrylic on canvas

A red-orange ground covered edge to edge in a repeated stencilled pattern: fighter jets, helicopters, rifles and artillery, drawn in grey-black inside circular roundels, laid down like printed cloth. At the centre, in the same grey-white, the Buddha is seated on a lotus with his right hand raised in vitarka mudra, the gesture of teaching. Immediately below him, on the same axis and at nearly the same scale, sits an armoured tank, its gun barrel running to the right edge.

The pattern is decorative until you look at what it is made of. The title is a question and the painting does not answer it - the teacher and the tank occupy the same axis, at the same size, on the same red field.

Hand signed by the artist. The reverse is inscribed in the artist's hand with the title, the medium and the dimensions, and signed; that inscription is shown in the photographs.

About Veer Hooda - ig: @vi_hov

Veer Hooda is an Indo-European (Austrian) contemporary artist based in Vienna, whose practice is shaped by a deep connection to his Indian roots and a great love for his now home, Europe.

Veer Hooda has exhibited across some of the top galleries and exhibitions in the world and recently finished his sold-out show at Art Basel Miami 2025. This year he will be exhibiting at, among others, the Venice Biennale 2026 and ArtExpo New York 2026, in multiple exhibitions across Europe and Austria, and returning to Art Basel Miami at the end of the year.

While his own work reflects a strong conceptual and material sensibility developed over years of creative and professional experience, Hooda is equally driven by a clear mission: to make outstanding Indian artistic talent more visible and accessible within the European art market. Positioned between India and Europe, he acts as a cultural bridge, offering early access to artists and narratives that are already gaining significant international recognition - a distinct insider perspective at a pivotal moment for Indian contemporary art.

Signed and authenticity: The work is hand signed by the artist, and a signed Certificate of Authenticity is provided with every work by India Contemporary by Vijit Veer Hooda.

Shipped from: This work is shipped from India and is fully insured on its way to the buyer.

Packaging & insurance: The painting is packaged professionally and shipped rolled in a tube. It arrives unstretched and will need to be restretched onto a frame on arrival - any framer will do this routinely.

Customs and duties: Import duty on original works of art is 0% in most EU countries. Some countries apply a reduced import VAT of 5-12% and/or a small clearance fee, payable by the buyer before delivery and in most cases settled online with the delivery company in a few minutes. We accompany the buyer through every step, from collection to the door, and are on hand for anything the process needs.