Tend The Garden

Manik Raj Nakra
September 3rd - October 1st, 2026

We are honored to welcome Austin’s own Manik Raj Nakra to his first solo show at Preacher Gallery. After featuring Nakra in Preacher’s 2026 edition of The Good Word, we knew he had to bring his vibrant work, rooted in culture, tradition, and myth, to our walls.

Tend The Garden explores the entangled relationships between humans, animals, nature, and ancient mythology. Through acid-colored landscapes, Nakra considers myth and nature as forces of sovereignty, resistance, and self-preservation to reveal the psychological terrain between the earthly and the divine. Snakes lure viewers through florals like Greek Sirens, while jungle cats emerge as mythic symbols of divine intervention.

At the center of the gallery, the artist has created an installation titled Garden, bringing together collaged handmade paper, rice-paper tapestries, and wall drawings, weaving together the Hindu goddess Kali Ma with the mythos of the moth as an enduring symbol of death and transformation. Here, Kali Ma becomes a personification of Mother Nature: fierce, loving, worshipped, and feared. Together, the works explore ceremony, ritual, mortality, and our spiritual bond with the natural world.