Four of the artists live in Tibet and four in the West, thus making this the first of many exhibitions at 16 Clifford Street that will illustrate not only what is happening now to contemporary art in the East but also what happens when East meets West. When artists migrate, when different cultures meet and mingle, the fusion from these encounters and the resulting art is constantly evolving, turning; it is transnational, transcultural, multicultural, never standing still. Rossi & Rossi will exhibit the most exciting contemporary artists whose work best reflects our constantly changing times.
Consciousness and Form: Contemporary Tibetan Art, as the title suggests, will illustrate the universal tension between the spirit of the artist and his desire to give it form. In traditional Tibetan art, the five senses are depicted as offerings to the gods while the sixth sense, consciousness, symbolises the body, speech and mind of the deity empowering the organs of the five senses. Each artist will show two works which express this Eastern concept in their own, very individual, way.
Tsering Nyandak who was born and lives in Tibet but lived for eight years in India says: "People always try, or pretend, to read your society and your background through your work with the baggage of their own expectations and experience. We all know that political and cultural distinctions provide attraction, but there is the high danger that people just engage with a cultural mask in the end. I believe the banality of play between consciousness (reaction) and form (art) can be more genuine. Work as form and its interrelation with people as consciousness is what counts."
The exhibition follows the success of Rossi & Rossi's ground-breaking From Classic to Contemporary: Visions from Tibet 2005 London exhibition and their 2007 New York show Tibetan encounters; Contemporary meets Tradition. The former was the first commercial exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art in the West. The eight artists featured in Consciousness and Form: Contemporary Tibetan Art were also exhibited in the New York exhibition when the majority of works were sold to European, American and Asian buyers as well as to museums in America and Europe for prices ranging from around $5,000 up to around $30,000. All these contemporary exhibitions highlight Rossi & Rossi's commitment to nurturing emerging talent from Asia and bringing it to a broader audience.
Visitors to this exhibition of contemporary art including paintings, photographs, drawings and prints and mixed media, will also be able to view a selection of earlier works dating from the 12th to the 17th centuries including two wonderful gilt copper alloy sculptures set with semi-precious stones. One is a 13th century Nepalese figure of Vasudhara, the Buddhist goddess of abundance, wealth, good fortune and fertility, shown in all her voluptuous magnificence, the other is an unusually large figure of Sadakshari Lokeshvara, the most popular Buddist bodhisattva in the Tibetan pantheon. It is an important example of the fine metal working tradition of the Khasa Malla kingdom in Western Nepal/Western Tibet which flourished during the 13th and 14th centuries and is extraordinary for its elaboration and luxury indicating it may have been a royal commission.
A magnificent 13th century Central Tibetan painting, distemper on cloth, depicts one of the five celestial Buddhas, Sarvavid Vairocana, the Omniscient Illuminator, preaching to an harmoniously arranged chorus of celestial beings. The enthroned, three-headed Buddha is adorned with lavish accoutrements including crown, earrings, necklaces, armlets, anklets and belt and a lower garment of richly designed textiles. The painting was created by an artist with remarkable skill and sensitivity and is unusually large for the period (148 x 115.5 cm).
