Tsherin Sherpa
Nepal
Tsherin Sherpa was born in 1968 in Kathmandu, Nepal, and currently resides in both California and Kathmandu, where he creates his artwork. His work is a reimagination of traditional Tibetan Buddhist patterns, symbols, colors, and gestures, creating contemporary art pieces through reorganization and transformation. He is recognized as a prominent Himalayan contemporary artist on the international stage.
Tsherin Sherpa represented Nepal for the first time at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 with the project titled Tales of Muted Spirits – Dispersed Threads – Twisted Shangri-la. He has participated in Art Basel Hong Kong thrice with solo exhibitions and in 2024, he was invited to display a 10-meter-long installation, Stairways to Heaven as part of Art Basel 2024’s public art project, becoming a highlight of the event.
In 2024, Tsherin Sherpa held his fourth large-scale museum solo exhibition, Tsherin Sherpa: Different Worlds, at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA, California). He is also part of the Rubin Museum of Art’s (New York) twentieth anniversary exhibition, Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now, where his work Muted Expressions has been acquired for the museum's permanent collection.
Sherpa's rich international exhibition footprint includes shows at significant institutions such as the retrospective exhibition Tsherin Sherpa: Spirits at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA, 2023); invitations to exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum (2023) and Asia Society Texas (2023). He has also featured in the Thailand Biennale (2023), Yokohama Triennale (2020), the second Yinchuan Biennale (2018), the first Kathmandu Triennale (2017), the eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2015), and the second Dhaka Art Summit (2014).
In 2023, the Asia Society awarded Tsherin Sherpa the Asia Arts Game Changer Awards, recognizing his exceptional contributions to contemporary art. Sherpa's works are widely held in major art museums and private collections globally, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Rubin Museum of Art (New York), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (USA), National Museums Liverpool (UK), de Saisset Museum (California), Peabody Essex Museum (Massachusetts), Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum, Berlin), Samdani Art Foundation (Dhaka), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi), and the Uli Sigg Collection, among other significant international holdings.
As the most representative artist in Nepal, Tsherin Sherpa has dedicated himself to preserving and developing the traditional crafts of his culture. By collaborating with the top local craftsmen on various projects, he brings these ancient crafts into the spotlight at global art fairs and museums, significantly increasing the visibility of such heritage arts and the social status of these craftsmen, making them seen, recognized, and respected. In the same spirit, Tsherin Sherpa established the "Takpa Gallery" in Kathmandu, providing emerging contemporary and traditional Nepalese artists with a sharing platform. For the younger generation, he created the nonprofit "Himalayan ART Initiative" that nurtures youngsters in learning traditional Himalayan arts, connecting them to their cultural roots from an early age, and thus actively preserving the future of Himalayan art. These diverse endeavors attest to how Tsherin Sherpa is going beyond the usual to raise the visibility of Nepalese culture in the world, thereby transforming the artistic landscape of contemporary Himalayan art.