Smoke

Bringing pop-culture, politics, and religious iconography together in a style known as Mongol zurag, this painting offers a commentary on the changing status of tradition in light of rapid development and globalization. At the center of the painting is Vajrapani, a wrathful deity recognizable by the vajra—diamond thunderbolt—in his right hand. A traditional image of transformation and purification, the deity seems almost to disappear in the clouds of smoke around him, made up of intricately wrought figures and objects.