Once Upon A Kingdom - Asma Menon

There's something of a dream in this painting. The kind that feels familiar even when you can't place why. Menon builds the canvas in layers, almost like memory itself. Gold leafed archways frame a scene within a scene, where lotuses push up from still water and a ruined palace floats in the distance. The boats are empty. The butterflies below are not. Every element sits in its own register of time, and yet the whole thing holds together with a quiet ease. This is a work about myth and place. About the stories a land carries long after its kingdoms have gone silent.