Mahesh Baliga paints what he knows. His subjects are the people and mundane scenes he sees in Western India: a man clipping his toenails in bed, people waiting to see the eye doctor, someone rowing a boat. “When I see the Madonna and child, for example, I’m not seeing it from an art-historical perspective,” he has explained, “I am interested only in the child and how it looks.” Baliga exaggerates these quotidian moments with bright pigments because “color is a vehicle to communicate.” For his first solo exhibition outside of India, the artist is showing several “lap-sized” paintings (pieces done on small canvases) as well as larger works. —Jensen Davis