Featuring Nepalese artist ROMIO SHRESTHA
“I believe that these paintings can be a source of profound inspiration even for those who have no previous exposure to Tibetan Buddhism.” – His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
For those who are not able to travel to Tibet to visit the Lukhang temple, now you can see these extraordinary paintings, to scale, in New York for the first time. Originally the tantric practices illustrated in these paintings were revealed only after years of study and meditation under a qualified teacher. That said, they remain relevant to the modern sensibility, as these paintings ultimately mirror our innermost spiritual freedom to attain enlightenment. For the human body and mind lost in the illusory world, the universal body is just a concept, but beyond the perceptual confines of the self, one can appreciate a deeper oneness with The Universe. Beyond our material and emotional body, we have a body of light; a pure being, a pure light, pure energy, existing in total potentiality.
“My purpose in life and through art is to awaken the divine in every single human being. It is my ultimate dream that, hopefully we will evolve to realize our body of light.” — Romio Shrestha
ON VIEW: May 29 – July 23, 2019
Romio Shrestha (b. 1960 in Kathmandu, Nepal) has devoted his time to preserving the ancient art of thangka painting. Romio and Sophie, his Irish wife who is also a painter, have spent the last twenty eight years together exhibiting and teaching around the world and developing the art of thangka painting in Kathmandu along with Romio’s atelier of artists.
They live in Ireland and Nepal with their four daughters Amber, Topaz, Metta and Jaya. By carefully balancing the traditional and his own expression, Romio has developed his own style and is constantly breaking new ground. His work can be found in the permanent collections of The British Museum and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Ireland, The American Museum of Natural History in New York, and other museums around the world.
