By The Highway

Acrylic on Canvas | 40 x 30 inches

In By the Highway, Nandita Desai captures the layered chaos of urban decay and regrowth. This acrylic on canvas work juxtaposes crumbling facades and broken staircases with quiet signs of life: ivy creeping up forgotten walls, sunlight catching on shuttered windows, and saplings reclaiming concrete corners.

The composition pulses with energy, drawing attention to the spaces we overlook in transit. The neglected homes, unfinished buildings, and tangled vegetation that line the edges of our cities all come into focus.

Rather than romanticize or condemn, the artist invites us to pause and observe the quiet beauty in these in-between places. It is both a portrait of a landscape and a meditation on what quietly endures.