This week, we welcome Tenzin D. Lama, a New York- and Kathmandu-based curator, artist and art consultant. Lama studied visual anthropology at Columbia and got her MA in art consultancy and curation from Sotheby’s Institute of Arts. She takes a dual approach of generating works representing traditional times, claiming her indigeneity, and simultaneously producing obfuscated portraiture and landscapes in contemporary mannerism.
In reference to this work, she said, “Amongst many homogenizing forces present in the Himalayan culture, I would like to differentiate a mode of representation that is drawn in the ‘Nhyinba’ culture of Humla district. The artwork is a pseudo traditional take and the message is to reclaim indigenous culture by mimicking old mural paintings.”
Her current project, Osmosis, is a group exhibition open through November 11 at Gallery Petit in Bushwick, which still holds the title as Brooklyn’s hottest arts neighborhood.
Featuring works by artists Marlow Davis, Melinda Kiefer, Tenzin D. Lama, Christopher Santiago and Nitin Mukul, this show revolves around the concept of osmosis – referring to transference or permeability of artists’ concepts materialized in their works. Somnambulistic repetition seen in the process of each artists’ work deploys the sole objective to re-enchant the mundane, triggering us to think about the larger phenomenology and humanity. These artworks include surrealism, art brut, folk art and fine and process-based art.
