Govinda Shah ‘Azad’
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, May 23 at 6PM
Rooted in the Hindu-Tibetan traditions of Nepal, Govinda’s early paintings include the images of gods represented in religious devotional painting and sculpture. His earlier work presents the figure in a Himalayan landscape, an element that came to inspire his visual explorations of cloud formations as symbols of creation, fertility, and heaven.
Govinda’s practice provides insight into intergalactic fields and occurrences of cosmic creation. Referencing the Buddhist philosophy of inversion, he holds that the closer we study the macrocosm beyond, the greater our awareness of the microcosm that is within ourselves. His paintings represent the mysterious worlds of these inner microcosms, as well as forces of creative energy and the infinite nature of space. Using movement and energy to visualize concepts including mortality, spirituality, and the sublime, he urges his audience to look beyond the realm of basic understanding.
Born in 1974 in Rajbiraj, Nepal, Govinda earned a BFA from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu in 2003. He received an MFA in painting from the University of Development Alternative, Bangladesh in 2005, and an MFA in painting from Wimbledon College of Art, London in 2008. His work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions internationally; this is his first solo show in America. Govinda lives and works in London.
Click here to read the review – Stephen E. Noerper, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, The Korea Society
Click here to view Govinda’s page on October Gallery
Awards:
- Short listed for John Moores Contemporary Painting Award, UK, 2010
- Best Young Artist, 7th Bangladesh International Artist Awards, Bangladesh, 2006
- 23rd place, Beppu Art Biennale, Beppu Museum, Japan, 2004
- First Talent award, International Leo youth camp, Biratnagar, Nepal, 2003
- Third position in National poster competition, organized by Ministry of Environment and Population and NAFA, 1998
- Second place in district competition organized by district education center, Nepal, 1990
- First place in district competition organized by district education center, Nepal, 1988
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
- Transcriptions, October Gallery, London, February 26 – March 26, 2011
- No Edge No Centre: Mix Media Painting, The Muse Gallery, London, September 28 – October 17, 2011
- Pighalta Satya, Global Gallery Café, Reading International Solidarity Centre, (RISC), Reading, UK. July 5 – July 30, 2010
- Unfold Invention, Siddhartha Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal, November 8 – November 30, 2009
- Meditating the Abstract, Asia House, London, July 15 – September 30, 2009
- Pillars of Hope: Ashaka Khambaharu, The Siddhartha Art Gallery, June 2006, Kathmandu, Nepal
- Peace through Painting, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, National Art Gallery, 2004
- Painting for Peace, Presented by the British Council, Nepal, 2003
Selected Group Exhibitions:
- Himalayan Festival, Nehru Centre, Mayfair, London, February 2010
- N-everland, The Nunnery, Bow Artist Trust, London, December 2009
- Separating Myth from Reality: State of Women, International Art Festival, Kathmandu, October 2009
- Apocalypse Now, Red Wire Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK, August 23 – September, 2009
- The Cloud, Saltburn Artists Project, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, UK, February 6 – March 8, 2009
Reviews:
BBC interview Thursday 27 January 2011. London, UK
Asian Art Newspaper : interview by Sam Phillips
Television Interview – Nepal Television programme was under Image Channel in 2000. It was taken after my Nationwide three monthos long solo cycle tour.
Newspaper Interview – The Ecologist by Ruth Styles
Robert Beer (artist and scholar of Tibetan Buddhist Art) – Oxford, England. January 2013
Dr. Tara Nath Sharma, Literary Critic – January 20, 2004
Anthony Blake (Author/Physicist and Philosopher, UK)
Prof. Abhi Subedi, Nepal (18 Sep 2010)
Dr. Jacqueline Taylor Basker, Ph.D.Oxford – GOVINDA AZAD: CLOUD CONSCIOUSNESS, CONSCIENCE AND FREEDOM
A Curator’s Word, Oct. 2009 – Sangeeta Thapa, Art Curator/Director, Siddhartha Art Gallery
Mysterious clouds – The Himalayan Times
Special Activity:
Nationwide art campaign for Art and Peace: Solo cycle tour from east to west Nepal (Feb. 28 to May 19, 2000) with the slogan “The 21st Century is the Century of Art and Peace”. During that period, he visited different schools to increase awareness for the value of art, canvassed cultural, religions and natural beauty and conducted exhibitions in respective places with the help of local youth clubs. At the end of the tour, he exhibited all his artworks at Kathmandu that was inaugurated by Honorable President of Royal Council Dr. Keshar Jang Raimajhi. For the sustenance of art in the areas he visited, six local art academies are founded.
Art exhibition and Talk in Physics and Astronomy Department, Boston University, USA.
Representing a paper and artworks in conference at INSAP-VII, (The seventh international conference on The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Bath, UK, 25/29 October 2010 (http://www.insapvii.org/artists/GovindaSah.html).
