T Venkanna was born in 1980 in Gajel, India He holds a Master’s in Fine Arts in printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda and Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in painting from JNTU, Hyderabad In this work from the year 2007 titled ‘Dream in Dream’ one can observe a derivative of French painter Henri Rousseau’s well known 1910 painting titled ‘The Dream’ As a painter, Rousseau came to be known and celebrated for his imaginative escapism at a time where it was still new in Paris The sanctity of the historical significance of Henri Rousseau’s artwork is buoyed however Venkanna does modify the visual and tweaks certain elements, for instance he replaced the woman from Rousseau’s original painting with a nude self-portrait Additionally, in his version, Venkanna has also added a panel where he satirically uses cartoons that starkly contradict the rest of theme on the canvas It’s his means of re-interpreting the visual imagery and in this process he critically laments on the norms that are prevalent within a contemporary society He intentionally renders it as a post-modern image with idiosyncratic undertones