Abir Karmarkar was born in1977. Talented Sikkim boy, Abir Karmakar, painted his own self as an androgynous double for his debut show, curated and presented by Ranjana Steinruecke. Sharp and edgy in its content, the photo realist images seemed to reach out of the confines of the canvas, to grab viewer attention. Now Baroda-based, he paints himself both as a woman and a man. But predominantly, the imagery is of a man in drag, placed in a bourgeois world of fashion and high life. Consequently, you see the 'man-woman' lolling on the bed, sprawled out on a decadent velvet sofa or getting ready for a fantasy filled fashion show. The detailed setting is urbane, upper class European, with just a hint of India peeping in, through the embroidered wall hanging.