Fine arts: Colours of a nation

Geography, language, culture, festivals, tradition, heritage, rivers, hills, mountains, Madhes, dialects, histories and life, joy and hardships. Now imagine this rich diversity captured through paintings, sculptures, cartoons and photography. Then imagine all of them brought together in one space.

A glance into Sudurpaschim’s Tharu’s faith. A celebration of Awadhi, Bhojpuri and Mithila ways of life. A peek into their traditional tools. Karnali’s elusive Rautes in sculptures. Bagmati’s majestic chariots (raths), intricately crafted wooden windows (Aankhi Jhyaal), and exquisite Thangkas. The Kirat’s legendary Yalambar’s valour—all reimagined through art. This year’s fine arts exhibition has it all—with the view of promoting original artworks to mainstreaming them.

Organised by Nepal Academy of Fine Arts (Nepal Lalitkala), the exhibition pays tribute to the art forms of marginalised and indigenous communities from across the seven provinces. The exhibition brings together over 650 different genres of artworks by 605 local artists, highlighting the contributions of arts in societal change—a continuity to its last year’s theme ‘Social Transformation through Campaign of Fine Arts’.

The event began on May 29, the Republic Day, and concludes June 13. Here are some photographs from the exhibition by the_farsight’s Diptina Sapkota.