A paubhā is a traditional religious painting made by the Newar people of Nepal. Paubhas depict deities, mandalas or monuments, and are used to help the practitioners in meditation. The Tibetan equivalent is known as Thangka. The main difference between Thangka and Paubha is that Thangka is exclusive to Buddhist art, while paubha is used in both Hindu and Buddhist art traditions by the Newar community.
Lain Singh Bangdel / Lain Bangdel (Rai), was Nepal's foremost artist, novelist, and art historian. In addition to being a leading authority on Nepalese art, Bangdel is best known as the "father of modern art" and was responsible for introducing the modern trends of Western art into Nepal with his pioneering one-man exhibition in Kathmandu in 1962.
Kalidas Shrestha was a Nepalese painter, sculptor, arts administrator, and social activist. He the founding chairman of Kamala Memorial Community Service Center; and also founded the Nepal Fine Arts College, where he served as its first principal. Shrestha also served as an honorable member of Nepal Academy.
Kurchi Dasgupta is an Indian painter, art critic, actor and translator. She currently lives between Kathmandu, Nepal and Kolkata, India.
The ancient and refined traditional culture of Kathmandu, for that matter in the whole of Nepal, is an uninterrupted and exceptional meeting of the Hindu and Buddhist ethos practiced by its highly religious people. It has also embraced in its fold the cultural diversity provided by the other religions such as Kirat, Jainism, Islam and Christianity.
Chandra Man Singh Maskey was a Nepalese artist who was one of the leaders in the development of contemporary art in Nepal in the early 20th century. Maskey spearheaded the trend of creating art using new techniques for its aesthetic value, and introduced a new style in the milieu of traditional art which is essentially religious and follows descriptions laid down in ancient texts.
Deepak Shimkhada is a Nepalese-American with a diverse professional background, including work as an Asian art historian, educator, writer, editor, and painter. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and has previously held visiting and adjunct positions at several U.S. universities, including Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University, California State University, Northridge, University of the West, and Claremont School of Theology. His teaching career began in 1980, and while he has retired from full-time teaching, he continues to teach Asian art part-time at Chaffey College.
Swastima Khadka is a Nepalese actress who predominantly works in Nepali cinema. She has appeared in Love Love Love (2017), Chhakka Panja 2 (2017), Nai Nabhannu La 5 (2018), and Bulbul (2019).
Sushma Shakya is a Nepalese woman visual artist who works on printmaking, painting, illustrations for books, video art, and installations. She has held many exhibitions of her art work across Nepal.
Sushma Shimkhada (1939–2018) was a Nepali sculptor, who received the Mahakavi Devakota Award in fine arts from the government of Nepal in 2015.
Thakur Prasad Mainali is a Nepalese artist and sculptor, known as a pioneer of Nepali modern art. He previously served as the chief of arts and craft department of the Royal Nepal Academy and served as Vice-Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts. He is married to Indira Mainali and has five children, Lata Kaini, Laya Mainali, Meena Upreti, Rachana Rimal and Reecha Rijal.
Priscila De Carvalho is a Brazilian-born American contemporary artist who is known for paintings, sculptures, murals, site-specific art installations, and permanent public art.
Shashi Bikram Shah is a Nepali artist born in Kathmandu in 1940, and with a career spanning five decades, is regarded as one of the preeminent contemporary artists of Nepal and one of the country's first modernist painters.
Nepal Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) is the umbrella organization of Nepali artists, researchers and art critics, and an arts institution for research and for exhibitions. A museum in Kathmandu, in a neoclassical building from the 1930s, presents collections of both traditional and contemporary paintings and other works. It was formerly part of Nepal Academy. The Nepal Academy of Fine Arts has also published a number of books about art and Nepali artists.
Ragini Upadhyaya Grela, popularly known as Ragini Upadhyaya, is a Nepalese fine artist, lyricist, and philanthropist. She served as the Chancellor of the second council of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts. She is known for her fusion of traditional mythology, symbolism, and modernism in her surrealist and abstract paintings. Her art often features social commentary and feminist or matriarchal themes.
Pramila Giri is a visual artist who has been living and practising in Norway since 1997. She practises in the mediums of sculpture and painting. During the initial years of her practice in the 1980s, Giri experimented with marble and resin, mediums that had not as yet been used in Nepal in the arts. Presently her work synthesises large-scale abstract sculptures with paintings that create an environment, and have a monumental effect on onlookers. Her sculptures are installed in significant sites in Nepal and abroad. In 1978, she was among a group of artists who represented Nepal in the Fourth Triennale - India. In 2019, she participated in "Nepal Art Now," a large-scale exhibition at Weltmuseum Wien, "the most extensive exhibition of modern and contemporary art from Nepal to date" according to the museum's press release.
Sneha Shrestha is a Nepali contemporary visual artist, street artist, educator, and arts administrator. She is known for starting the Children's Art Museum of Nepal, and for her graffiti art, using the handle IMAGINE.
Sheelasha Rajbhandari, is a Nepalese visual artist, curator, and cultural organizer. Her artwork examines alternative narratives through folk tales, oral traditions, myths, material culture, performances and rituals, and presents them as counterpoints to mainstream history and narratives. She often seeks to challenge social taboos and patriarchal discourses by focusing on women's struggles and celebrating their resilience. Her long-term research plans and artistic practice often synthesize knowledge and experiences gained as a result of individual and collective discourses. Rajbhandari is also a curator noted for her contributions to the Kathmandu Triennale 2077 and first Nepal Pavilion, at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2022. In 2013, she co-founded the art collective Artree Nepal alongside Hit Man Gurung, Subas Tamang, Mekh Limbu, and Lavkant Chaudhary.
Kiran Manandhar is a Nepalese painter, who was the founding chancellor of the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts from 2010 to 2014. He is considered one of the pioneering Nepalese abstract expressionist painters.
