Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala: June 16: 30 vibrant and strikingly exotic artworks of two ambitious and passionate young Tibetan women artists are on display at the Tibet Museum. The art exhibition, “Refugee Being,” which began yesterday will go on till 24th of this month.
For Sonam Lhamo and Kelsang Dekyi, who just finished their college degrees in fine arts and commercial arts respectively, this is their first real journey into their world of professional painting. But, they were already looking confident and well exposed to the kind of artwork they have chosen.
While Sonam describes her painting as being surrealist expression, Dekyi says hers is of decorative form.
Since early school days at Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) School, the two have made most part of their painting journey together, with Dekyi modestly acknowledging that she imbibed her passion in painting from Sonam. “Sonam is such a talented artist right from School and I was inspired by her painting skills,” remarks Dekyi with a kind of smile that suggests she made the right choice following her painting comrade.
The duo will be exhibiting their works in the Kalstard University in Sweden from 15 to 24 August and again in Paris, France from September 1 to 14 this year.
Their paintings, while being inborn works of their own, mirror a strong Tibetan cultural core in them like that of other contemporary Tibetan artists.
Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, exile Tibetan prime minister, who spared his time to honour the works of these two aspiring young artists, thanked them personally and on behalf of the Kashag (Cabinet) after seeing their paintings.
“It is encouraging to see young determined Tibetans learning to achieve their aims in life,” Rinpoche said while addressing the people at the exhibition at the request of the two artists.
We have a small Tibetan community with disturbed political history and without outspread cultural works, but our cultural exhibition and paintings representing Tibetan culture can now be spotted in different parts of the world,” he said. “With unique and rich cultural heritage, mostly unexplored, of our own, aspiring Tibetan artists with proper understanding of it can have vast opportunity to harness the richness into their artworks,” he suggested.
In his informal address, Prof. Rinpoche expressed satisfaction and pride in the way young Tibetans are creating new professional trends in the Tibetan community. Nevertheless, he said that advancement in one’s work should progress as steadily as the spontaneous flow of water.
Gyari Dolma, Deputy Speaker of the Tibetan parliament in exile and Mr Tsewang Yeshi, President of TCV, and some other members of Tibetan Assembly have also come to appreciate their works.
