Mumbai-based painter Rithika Merchant has opened her solo exhibition "The Dreaming Realm" at Galerie LJ in Paris, presenting a new body of work that stages surreal, symmetrical tableaux where mythological creatures mingle with flora and fauna. The exhibition continues through 21 November.

At the heart of the show are hybrid beings: human bodies crowned with the heads of raptors, accompanied by insects, stars and all-seeing eyes drifting through metaphysical tendrils. Merchant paints floods and eruptions alongside enigmatic rites that suggest cooperation and resolve. Rather than illustrating fixed myths, the fable-like narratives probe a collective unease about the environment while reaching for the possibility of repair.

The works draw on an unusually wide research base. According to the gallery, Merchant threads together the Greek notion of Kairos — time as subjective and opportune — with studies of the Beguines, the medieval communities of financially independent Christian women, some of whom practiced mysticism. Symbols recur as quiet shorthand: the luna moth signals intuition and transition, while ravens stand for wisdom and foresight, bridging the seen and unseen worlds.

A continuing thread is "Interspecies Care", the artist's ongoing series examining how species live together — through social organization, interdependence, reciprocity and the sharing of knowledge. Drawing on earth, plants, fire, water and the stars, Merchant balances volatility against strength, producing images that feel both ancient and urgent: a dream realm where humans and creatures test what care across species might look like. Against the polished white-cube backdrop of the Paris gallery, the paintings read as quiet counter-spells to the city's fair-week commotion, insisting that tenderness and ritual still have a place in contemporary image-making.