Jan Salter

KHULLA DHOKA: The Open Door Exhibition

Nepalese & British Contemporary Art, 28 October - 20 November 2008

10.30 – 6.30 daily Organised by, and to raise funds for, Kathmandu Arts Centre

Part of ASIAN ART IN LONDON, and its nominated charity for 2008

For the first time in London, leading contemporary Nepalese artists will have their work featured at a major selling exhibition, as part of the 11th annual ‘Asian Art in London’.  Khulla Dhoka: The Open Door Exhibition runs from 28 October to 11 November at the Royal Over-Seas League in St. James’s, London SW1.  It has been organised by the British registered charity, Kathmandu Arts Centre, to raise funds for its major project to establish a cultural centre in the capital of Nepal. 

Khulla Dhoka, which means ‘open door’ in Nepali, symbolises and reflects an open mind.  The exhibition seeks to expose the excellence and vitality of art in Nepal today, with its fusion of contemporary and traditional, and the organisers have invited many other artists to create works to this theme for the exhibition.

 

  (Below: 108 Drinking Spouts at Muktinath, Luke Elwes)

In total, 108 works will be exhibited for sale.  There will be oils, watercolours, prints, photographs and mixed media.  108 is a propitious and sacred number in Hinduism and Buddhism and throughout most of Asia.

The Kathmandu Valley has been called a museum without walls. For 2,500 years the Newars, its inhabitants, created countless masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu art, whose fame travelled far, via the strategic trade route between northern India and Tibet.  The great flowering of art and ideas, and resulting wealth, closed in on itself when in 1850 under Rana rule Nepal adopted a policy of deliberate political isolation, which lasted a century.  Since 1952, Nepal has been making bold strides to catch up with the rest of the world while striving to maintain its own cultural identity.  The aim of the Kathmandu Arts Centre is to cultivate emerging artists and be a vital resource for both the Nepalese and the international artistic community.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

Nepalese artists in the exhibition

Uma Shankar Shah, Seema Shah, Kiran Manandhar, Shashi Shah, Ashmina Ranjit, Sujan Chitracar, Manuj Babu Mishra, Durga Baral “Batsayan”,  Romio Shrestha, Sunil Sigdel and Ragini Upadhyay Grela.

Background to the exhibition

In March 2006 with strikes, curfews and armed policemen on the streets, a major show called “Khulla Dhoka” / The Open Door Exhibition was curated by Sangeeta Thapa in Kathmandu. One hundred and eight full-sized doors were donated and then painted or carved, bringing together artists, poets and musicians from many countries. The symbolism of the doors flung wide open was to reflect an open mind. This served as a creative and spiritual exercise in Nepal where labels of caste, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and politics still create profound divisions within society. The UK exhibition will be a continuation on this theme.

The need for the Kathmandu Arts Centre

Today in Nepal there is a lack of infrastructure for the development and growth of contemporary art and little help for its artists. We aim to establish the KAC as a dynamic centre for Nepalese and international artists with world-class exhibitions, workshops and symposia and an active artist exchange programme. The KAC hopes to build an international cultural centre allowing the world to hear the distinctive voice of a younger generation of artists who have emerged and who have a voice that deserves to be heard.

The British charity (UK registered charity no. 1121118)

In 2006, British artist Celia Washington spent seven months in Nepal as artist in residence at Kathmandu University. Nepal was in the final months of a ten-year civil war and she was deeply impressed by the creativity and determination of a younger generation of artists, despite their poverty and the political instability in Nepal. 

Celia initially collected over eight hundred art books for the university library which were sent to Nepal with the help of the British Council. On further visits to Nepal and in discussion with Nepalese artists, the idea for the Kathmandu Arts Centre began to take shape and develop, and culminated in her meeting with Sangeeta Thapa, director of the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Kathmandu. They realized that they shared the same vision. This resulted in the proposal for the Kathmandu Arts Centre and it being registered as a British charity in October 2007. This was set up to raise funds to build the KAC and thereby, in the future, give the Nepalese artists the tools and infrastructure to change their own lives.

Asian Art in London is a major international event. Around fifty art galleries and antique dealers stage special exhibitions, London’s major Asian auctions take place and academic and cultural institutions present a rich and varied programme of lectures and specialist exhibitions. The aim of the event is to bring Asian art to the widest possible audience by sharing London dealers’ knowledge with the general public. Since its inception in 1998, it has also devoted its energies towards charitable causes. The KAC is honoured to be chosen as this year’s charity which will lead to wide international exposure and generate invaluable publicity.

Reg. UK Charity No.1121118  ©  KAC 2009