Born in Varanasi in 1981, the young artist Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi unapologetically unmasks the men and women he draws in his large-format works to reveal the grotesque, robotic creatures he believes they really are. Skeletal forms in colorful shirts and dresses populate his multi-piece works on paper, some plugged into an electrical outlet, others held down with barbed wire and nuts and bolts. These anthropomorphic beings focus attention on the artificiality of beautiful appearances and the corruption that he believes has found its way into every aspect of contemporary human existence and interaction.

Describing himself as a painter true to his ideology and perception, Chaturvedi accepts that...