An engineer by education, and a Gond artist by profession, Dhavat  Singh Uikey has grown up listening to folk tales. He translates some of these tales about the forest and its animals in his paintings, stretching the boundaries of traditional Gond art. Open to experiments and newer ideas, Uikey plays with scale, palette and form in his works, trying to put a visual form to the myths and folklore surrounding animals as told by the Baiga tribe. Most of the stories are about their reactions and interactions with animals in their daily lives. Singh sees himself as more of a contemporary artist using traditional skills.