Nepal Art Now

The Weltmuseum Wien is hosting the most comprehensive exhibition of modern and contemporary Nepalese art presented to date. Approximately 130 works—including paintings, sculptures, video art and installations—by some 40 Nepalese artists will be on display. The exhibition begins with modernist works in Nepal from the 1950s onwards and continues through to the present. Nepal Art Now emphasises the socio-political turn in the work of Nepalese artists, and questions relating to the construction of cultural identities in a globalized world.

The exhibition embraces a broad spectrum of artistic approaches and expressive forms. In Vienna, visual artist Sheelasha Rajbhandari presents an installation the thematic focus of which addresses the issue of discrimination against women in patriarchal societies. Ang Tsherin Sherpa’s work draws its inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist iconography. The artist abstracts, fragments and reconstructs traditional forms of representation as means of exploring the experiences of the diaspora. The works of the artist Hit Man Gurung originated in response to some of Nepal’s most pressing socio-political issues, such as labour migration, civil war, political corruption, and the devastating earthquake of 2015.

Alongside established artists such as Lain Singh Bangdel, Laxman Shrestha, Ang Tsherin Sherpa, Ashmina Ranjit and Hit Man Gurung, the exhibition also features works by a host of newcomers. Some Nepalese artists have attended academies outside their country, while others have travelled extensively and thus adopted many of the novel artistic practices from different parts of the world. Hence, it comes as no surprise that certain aspects of Nepal’s contemporary art owe their existence to international discourses in related fields. Though rooted in Nepalese culture and traditions, these works address general issues ranging from the 2015 earthquake to environmental degradation, politically motivated violence, relations between the sexes, the commodification of religious traditions, the misery of labour migration, and the status of women in society. Those artists featuring in the exhibition reflect on the development of Nepal’s art, as well as the country’s politics and society; in so doing they also highlight the cultural landscape of a country which first began opening its borders to the world a mere 60 to 70 years ago. Nepal has since undergone enormous political and social transformations—transformations that have exerted a profound influence on its art scene.

Nepal’s traditional religious imagery to which the public is accustomed to viewing as works of art displayed in museums, is the work of anonymous masters. They become pure works of art only once exhibited in museums and integrated into the global art canon, and thus unleashed from their original religious context. And yet the preponderance of contemporary art emerging in Nepal presents itself quite differently. Thus, in the show Nepal Art Now, the term “contemporary art” refers not to an art genre, but simply signifies a temporal dimension: It refers to that which has emerged over the last half century. The selection of paintings, sculptures and installations, carefully made in close collaboration with Nepalese artists and art historians, mirrors the diversity of what could be created in a day. The spectrum ranges from purely abstract works to traditional, spiritual-religious Paubha painting.

Contributing artists: Lain Singh Bangdel, Lok Chitrakar, Asha Dangol, Chandra Shyam Dangol, Pramila Giri, Hit Man Gurung, Koshal Hamal, Manish Harijan, Kabi Raj Lama, Mekh Limbu, Lachhiman Maharjan, Sanjeev Maharjan, Sunita Maharjan, Kiran Manandhar, Manuj Babu Mishra, Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Ashmina Ranjit, Ajit Kumar Sah, Seema Sharma Shah, Shashi Bikram Shah, Uma Shankar Shah, Anil Shahi, Rabindra Shakya, Rajan Shakya, Siddhi Muni Shakya, Surendra Man Shakya, Ang Tsherin Sherpa, Soshana, Gopal Kalapremi Shrestha, Laxman Shrestha, Samundra Man Singh Shrestha, Udaya Charan Shrestha, Sunil Sigdel, Birendra Pratap Singh, S. C. Suman, Erina Tamrakar, Mukti Singh Thapa, Ragini Upadhyay Grela, as well as the Maithil artists from Janakpur.

Christian Schicklgruber, Director of the Weltmuseum Wien, developed the exhibition in collaboration with two curators from Nepal—the art historians Dina Bangdel (1963-2017) and Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha. Furthermore, a presentation curated by Claire Burkert awaits the public featuring pictures by female artists in the style of the Maithil culture located along the border region with India.

The exhibition’s cooperation partner is the Kathmandu-based Nepal Art Council. The exhibition was previously held in Kathmandu.