Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha

Artists and guests at the opening of the exhibition at CIIS

Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha is a scholar of Nepali Cultural Heritage. She is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2024-25, affiliated with the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. She received her MA in Nepalese History, Culture and Archaeology from Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, and a second MA in Museum and Gallery Practice from University College London. She is the Curator at the Nepal Art Council, where she has organized and curated numerous art exhibitions on a national and international platform. She serves as a consultant curator, designing the concept document for numerous museums. She teaches Nepali Art & Culture and Iconography at various institutions nationally and internationally.

Recently, she was appointed as a Board member of Patan Museum. She is a dedicated professional in the field of art, culture, exhibition curation, and museum education. She follows her passion to write articles and research papers on Nepali art and culture that are published in ICOM publications as well as in other reputed publications of Nepal and abroad

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Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha has organized three exhibitions through her research on the Diaspora Nepali Artists of the Bay Area and Beyond.

The exhibitions can be seen at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, the Piedmont Center for the Arts, Oakland, and at the Public Library, City of Aurora, CO. The two exhibitions in California will run through the end of August, while the one in Colorado will open on August 29th and stay open for two months. 

The following are excerpts from their interview. 

Hugh Leeman:

You have incredible dedication to your research and teaching on Nepali art history in addition to your role with art museums internationally. Amidst this incredible passion and dedication, what would you like people to know about Nepal and Nepali art?

Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha:

Firstly, about Nepal, it is a country with an incredibly long history, a very rich cultural heritage. In terms of art history, when we talk about the Indian subcontinent, usually people think of only India. In most museums, I’ve noticed that when they label a section as South Asia, Nepal gets lost. Even Bangladesh gets left out sometimes, but mostly Nepal is missing. Nepal gets included as being a part of South Asia, not as a sovereign country in its own right. Yet, Nepal has been there since the 3rd century CE; we know of it being mentioned in inscriptions from that time.

It is a very old country, maybe the borders have changed, but the name and identity of Nepal go back that far. It has also been instrumental in sustaining the art history of South Asia. Before India became a nation-state in 1947, the area south of Nepal was a conglomerate of many kingdoms and republics, each with its own artistic traditions. Nepal is located just above this diverse region, with Tibet above it and China beyond.

The most important thing is that Nepal helped sustain and share South Asian art forms with Tibet, China, Mongolia, and beyond.Also, regarding modern heritage practices, Nepal is the first Asian country listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1979, which wouldn’t have happened without our long, rich cultural legacy.

Nepal Art Now, 2019 at Weltmuseum, Vienna. Pramila Giri, Bronze sculptures

HL:

I had no idea that Nepal was the first Asian country in UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Turning to your contemporary curatorial practice, during an exhibition, you shared that through your Fulbright Visiting Scholar research program and organizing contemporary Nepali art shows internationally, your perspective on the Nepali diaspora has changed. What was your perspective before these shows, and how has it evolved?

SRK:

There were two main reasons I chose to research Nepali diaspora artists. First, historically, back in the 13th century, a Nepali artist by the name of Arniko traveled to China with 80 other artisans. There, they built temples, stupas, and other architectural works. His skill was so respected that he was invited to the court of Kublai Khan to paint portraits of the Khan and his queen. These paintings are now at the National Palace Museum, Taipei and they have a statue of the artist in China. But we in Nepal wouldn’t know any of this if not for Chinese records, we failed to document our own history.

That’s a gap I didn’t want to see repeated. Despite Nepal’s early contributions, our own artists are often unknown at home. And yet Nepali art has been present in all the major museums around the world due to its skill and precision, especially in small scale. Even today, Nepal produces sculptures for temples in Bhutan, Tibet, China, Japan, and Mongolia.

Second, our contemporary artists haven’t achieved the same visibility as our traditional works. I hoped my research would help open doors for them. I discovered a vibrant group of artists in the Bay Area and beyond, I hope my research and the exhibitions will support as the platform for greater visibility for them internationally.

Nepal, Where the Gods Reside, 2023, Bihar Museum Biennale, Bihar Museum, Patna, India
18 x 18 ft sand mandala installation

HL:

You’ve been at the forefront of gaining visibility for Nepali artists from shows here in the Bay Area to exhibitions in Colorado, Bihar Museum in India and the National Museum in Vienna Austria. Among all the artists you've worked with, who are the contemporary Nepali artists that most deeply inspire you, particularly in terms of their creative process?

SRK:

Contemporary Nepali artists and their creative processes is a very vast subject, they are dynamically engaged with both national and global discourses on migration, politics, environmental issues, aesthetics, and more. This is because of where Nepal stands as a nation, and it reflects in their art.

In traditional art, two names I deeply respect are Lok Chitrakar and Mukti Singh Thapa. They are “contemporary traditional artists,” meaning they continue the traditional art forms while evolving them with time. Lok Chitrakar comes from a lineage of artists dating back generations and has sustained this heritage through difficult times particularly during the Rana regime (1850s–1950s) when traditional ethnic art practices were suppressed in favor of modernization.

Mukti Singh Thapa isn’t from the Newar community (traditionally the custodians of Kathmandu Valley art), but he studied and mastered traditional painting and has spread it worldwide.

In contemporary art, some of my favourite artists are Youdhisthir Maharjan, Meena Kayastha, Tenzin Rigdol, Sunil Sigdel, Mekh Limbu, Shraddha Shrestha, Shushank Shrestha, Rajan Kafle. They are an eclectic mix of artists educated in Nepal and abroad. Each employs styles and philosophies that are deeply rooted in their culture, while engaging a global audience, either through their style or their narrative. Actually the list of contemporary Nepali artists are endless, they all contribute to making a vibrant artistic scene in Nepal, these days.

Nepal Art Now, 2019 at Weltmuseum, Vienna.
Central installation- Life is Beautiful – Being in the Body Ashmina Ranjit, original in 2016, Installation; glass bangles, red wool, colour pigments, sari, cane frames, fishing lines, nails

HL:

Nepal’s heritage sites aren’t just monuments; they're living, ritual spaces. You’ve worked on merging community heritage with institutional practices. What can museums learn from local community-based models of heritage preservation?

SRK:

That’s such an interesting question. Heritage preservation in Nepal, especially intangible heritage, has traditionally been passed down orally. In earlier agrarian lifestyles, people had time to hear stories from grandparents and continue those rituals. But over the past 50–60 years, with modernization and more time-consuming professions, we’ve lost much of that.

Now, several Nepali organizations are recording these oral stories, realizing that generational transmission is fading. In terms of tangible heritage, a lot has been recorded, some by Nepalis, much by Westerners. For example, traditional conservation techniques were documented in handmade books called thayasafus, which include diagrams and instructions.

In a museum project I worked on, we initially proposed conserving objects using Western conservation standards. The costs were too high. The local community said, “Why worry? We’ve been doing this for centuries.” So we returned to traditional materials and methods. I believe Western and traditional practices can be combined, we don’t need to rely solely on Western practices. 

Visitors at the opening of the exhibition at PCA

HL:

I want to revisit something you wrote about from a personal experience a few years ago, walking around the newly opened Museum of Nepali Art, amidst live painting and music, you spoke about seeing the potential of art to offer hope amidst global challenges. With art museums today struggling to bring in audiences, how do we get people to have those restorative emotional experiences with art?

SRK:

Especially in Nepal, art is part of our daily life, especially in Kathmandu Valley. Visual culture is embedded everywhere, and that influences both artists and the public.

After the pandemic, there was a wave of exhibitions. Art gave people a way to process their trauma without being lectured or judged. When you see an artwork, you interpret it yourself. No one tells you what to think. That makes it therapeutic.

Personally, before the pandemic, I took a 3-month ceramic workshop, which turned into 6 months. I got completely immersed in shaping clay, it was so absorbing that my husband asked why I was never home. I told him about how I was so immersed in art making with the mud of clay. I think that’s the power of art, simple materials, like mud, becoming meaningful through process and presence.

HL:

That’s a beautiful story, mud and history, continuing to ground us. As you prepare to return to Nepal, what from your experiences and research here will you take home with you?

SRK:

My research here was meant to understand Nepali artists in the Bay Area. Initially, I didn’t fully grasp the complexity of the term “diaspora.” I thought it just meant migration. But being here, speaking with artists, I realized the diasporic condition is emotionally complex, filled with ambivalence, loss, assimilation, and struggle for recognition.

That led me to deeper readings on diaspora theory. I want to continue this work. The art scene in Nepal is also vibrant, but I hope to bring back insights into how diasporic identity informs artistic practice and also the invaluable contribution art plays in diasporic living.

Kabi Raj Lama, explaining about his art at the opening at CIIS Destruction and Construction, 2023
Lithograph
240 x 116 cm (81 x 116 cm each panel)

HL:

Looking ahead, what opportunities or challenges do you see for the next generation of Nepali artists both at home and abroad as they navigate between local traditions and global art markets?

SRK:

For artists here in the Bay Area, most are first-generation immigrants. Their children are still young, so it’s hard to predict how future generations might be involved in the arts. The current artists navigate a deeply complex state of mind as diasporic identity involves emotional loss, cultural assimilation, and a constant negotiation between worlds. Their art reflects this complexity.

In the exhibitions I organized, I wanted to convey this depth. Typical gallery labels weren’t enough. Trying to consider how I would convey so much information without huge blocks of wall text, led me to add QR codes linking to narratives and interviews, giving visitors a deeper sense of what it means to be a diasporic artist.

For contemporary Nepali artists outside of Nepal, It’s a symbiotic relationship: the artists need the community, and the community seeks meaning through the artists’ work. They need each other. 

Back in Nepal, the younger generation, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, are producing incredible work. If you visit Kathmandu now, you will be surprised and wonder which part of the world you are in. It is no different from any being anywhere else in the world in the art scene right now in Kathmandu, yet in terms of reaching the global market, this is an area to work on. Yes, we have to acknowledge social media and the access to the internet, but their mentors and their teachers are also very knowledgeable and through their mentorships, they have been able to evolve.

Performance by Grammy nominated Nepali Musician, Manose, the artist and Swosti at the opening of the exhibition at PCA

HL:

Swosti, this is wonderful. I'm inspired by what you're doing, and I have to tell you, thank you for the education.

SRK:

Thank you too. I would like to mention that I feel very blessed to have expanded my research beyond an academic paper to multiple exhibitions. This would not have been able without the support of my host institution, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, my supervisor Padma Dorje Maitland, Associate Curator, Art of the Indian Subcontinent, Asian Art Museum, Professor Alexander Von Rospatt from the University of California, Berkeley for the impetus to conduct this research and to the many friends who have supported me in my nine months of stay here.