Mumbai, Mar 10 (IANS); Baroda-based artist Lavanya Mani may use traditional Kalamkari dyeing and handcrafting but her works are highly inspired by contemporary references.

Her upcoming exhibition will depict natural underwater life painted in rich colours.

In her exhibition "Signs Taken for Wonders", Mani harnesses traditional domestic craft in her works that straddle myth, science, nature, art and history.

It will open at the Gallery Chemould Prescott Road here on March 14 and closes on April 30.

In her new body of work, Mani uses rich colours to paint multispecies. Shells, herbarium, underwater life, snakes, fossils float gloriously on specially-prepared layered surfaces.

The show also seems to explore the concept of early museums called the 'curiosity cabinet' or 'wonder-rooms', which were fascinating collections of objects.

It seems to be comment on naturally-occuring phenomena like underwater life being perceived as 'wonders', in the age of the all-too-dominant human.

The paintings draw attention to the complex systemic phenomena that comprise a living planet, the gallery said in a note.