Growing up in Burma, Santosh Adhikari (b. 2002) had been taught to value minimalism, humility, and to follow the teaching of the Buddha: “less is more.” As Adhikari grew up and moved to New York for college, he found himself in a culture of loud self-expression and self-indulgence. Adhikari’s work revolves around this tension between the Buddhist ideals of non-attachment he grew up with and the Western ideals around self-reward and consumerism. These canvases highlight the glittering mirage of the material possessions against a subtler darker background of greed. The lotus, a symbol of spiritual purity in Buddhism, is tainted by the worldly luxuries of rubies and diamonds in this fight between temptation and stoicism.