The epic battle between Good and Evil in the Ramayana serves as lessons in contemporary life even today, whether it is personal or on a more global scale. Greed, Jealousy, Power, Cruelty, Lust and Debauchery are some of the vices driving the baser instincts to create human conflict, chaos and sufferings. Nik Zainal Abidin is a pioneering artist who transformed the Ramayana and Mahabharata folklores of waying kulit onto modern painting. His works incorporate figuratives, backdrop scene narration and colours on the travails of Sri Rama rescuing his wife Siti Dewi from the evil clutches of Rawana. His works were shown in Spain complete with wayang kulit performances in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. Self-taught Nik Zainal Abidin represented Malaysia in the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in 1970, the same year he was sent on a German cultural tour. He was a member of the Wednesday Art Group. He won 1st Prize in the Merdeka Independence Art in 1967, and had his first two solos at the Samat Art Gallery in 1970 (June) and 1971 (October-November) respectively. He designed the Kunci Ibu Kota, cokmar (royal mace) and the royal throne of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He worked as a RTM set designer from 1960 to 1987. Wrote Dolores Wharton in Contemporary Artists Of Malaysia: A Biographical Survey: “There are many who tried their hands at painting wayang kulit but none has unlocked the vitality of drama or acquired the skills of painting the figures that Nik Zainal does so effortlessly.”