Madan Meena works extensively with rural, nomadic and tribal communities of his native Rajasthan. Through their last living practitioners, he delves into the state’s oldest folk traditions, documenting their lives in a bid to preserve their identities. ... As a practitioner, Meena revisits the languishing craft traditions of his birthplace, not only studying them as an academic, but reviving them as an artist. The classic Nayak and Nayika in his works are reimagined through a contemporary lens--the Barahmsa series is an expression of their emotions, told through the motifs of animals, while the Selfie series puts them in the centre of changing social milieu. In his preservation of lost or extinct artistic practices, he adds a contemporary flourish, as in his work drawn from the Kota and Bundi styles of miniature painting, in collaboration with local miniature artists. An artist and researcher, his doctoral thesis, “Art of the Meena Tribe,” which focused on the traditions of his own ancestral community, was accompanied by an exhibition of wall paintings by the women of the tribe. A recurring theme throughout his work is nostalgia, and the nomadic traveller’s longing for his homeland.

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