AIR- 2021: Young Artists Studio Support Residency Program
Bikalpa Art Center invites you to the open studio and exhibition of the ‘Young Artist Studio Support Residency Program. The two residence artists Pooja Duwal and Subodh Subba will be presenting their works produced during three months of their residency at BAC. The exhibition will open at 4:30 pm with a reception and light refreshments later in the evening followed by a live musical performance, drinks, and dinner.
The BAC Studio Support Residency Program is designed to offer extra exposure, and creative support to young artists in a compact/ intensive format. I believe this program has become a new transformation for the two participating young artists and has helped in their artistic expression. This exhibition is a small reflection of their progressive growth.
About the artists:
Pooja Duwal
Pooja Duwal is a visual artist based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She completed her Bachelors in fine arts from Kathmandu University Department of Arts. Having majored in Studio Art, she is passionate about telling stories around her through the medium of paint. She is part of Aakrit Collective, an artists’ collective based in Bhaktapur. She has also been teaching art at Drawing Room Ktm since 2019. Furthermore, she is also keen on expressing her ideas through writing.
‘On the Road’ by Pooja Duwal (Artist’s Statement)
Pooja enjoys paying attention to every small detail of her surroundings in her everyday life. In the series of works in the residency at Bikalpa, She has focused on a micro-level on her journey from her home (Bhaktapur) to Bikalpa Art Center (Pulchowk). Even though the road is a source of much stress with the noise, dust and traffic, she enjoys the harmony of compositions and colors the road offers.
In fact, there are many opportunities for beauty- the delicious pastel hues of a scooter, the light reflecting off a bright jacket of a bike passenger, the shoes of another, hands clasping onto jackets of the riders, and so on.
Everyday experiences carry many subtle meanings about our inner worlds but because we are used to them, they are often ignored. By capturing these images and translating them into paintings, she thinks she is able to observe the busy impressions attentively. Thus the paintings are evidence of the beauty in these brief impressions.
Subodh Subba
Subodh Subba is an aspiring artist born in 1998 in Morang. He has completed his +2 in Fine Arts from Sirjana College of Fine Arts. Currently, he is studying Bachelor in Fine Arts at Lalitkala Campus. Subba is passionate about drawing, sculpture, and painting. He has participated in the Sirjana watercolor workshop, The Buds XII annual exhibition, and the traditional woodcarving workshop.
‘In a Loop’ by Subodh Subba (Artist’s Statement)
The initial inspiration of ‘In a Loop’ has come from an experience of being isolated during the lockdown period and how everyone is forced to spend longer time on screen. It somehow affected the artist in his daily activities and the work. That undesired action made him question himself, and in responding to it, he created the work in a linear style to portray the idea of how one could spend time on screen in an endless loop.
During the residency at Bikalpa, Subodh got opportunities to share, get exposure to his concept through the course of the discussion, research and it made him understand the work in a better proposition. Now, Subodh’s core intent of producing the presented work reflects the idea of internal conflict of duality, ‘how an object or a physical experience can mean different in different contexts. He choosed to make his work on public space, mainly electrical poles in Kathmandu and in Patan so that it could connect different people or give an easy access to observe the work as they travel/ pass by every day.
The presented work in the gallery is just a documentation/ illustration of the actual works that are in public space. We encourage you to go have a look at it in real.
Image Gallery from the Artists Talk & Presentation
This Presentation aimed to have a constructive discussion on the work of two participating artists, their progress, and learning experiences. The two residency curators Manish Lal Shrestha and Jupiter Pradhan will be sharing their knowledge and experiences of organizing residency programs and how it could help the sustainable ecosystem of Nepali contemporary art, promoting young artists and the art scene.
Image Gallery from the Open Studio
