Sneha Shrestha, recognized artistically as IMAGINE, is a Nepali artist whose apply bridges her native Devanagari script with the visible language of graffiti handstyles. Her work advocates for the preservation of residing cultures inside up to date artwork, insisting that language, ritual, and reminiscence stay lively and never simply archival. Working throughout portray, murals and sculpture, Shrestha strikes fluidly between meditative abstraction and large-scale public intervention.
Her work balances cultural and political issues with a deep dedication to materials and story telling. In some our bodies of labor, she foregrounds calligraphic repetition drawn from Sanskrit scriptures and immigration paperwork, remodeling language into meditative fields of color and gesture. In others, she shifts towards architectural scale and sculptural presence, exploring guardianship, migration and belonging via brass, metal and site-responsive set up. Throughout mediums, her central themes embody cultural continuity, diaspora identification and the creation of areas that foster reflection, safety and delight.
Shrestha’s sculpture Dwarpalika was acquired by the Harvard Artwork Museums and is presently on long run view. She is the primary up to date Nepali artist to enter the everlasting assortment of the Museum of Tremendous Arts Boston together with her portray Home416. She is the recipient of the James and Audrey Foster Prize from the Institute of Up to date Artwork Boston. Her public sculpture in Queens, New York, created in partnership with the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Artwork for the New York Metropolis Division of Transportation, was recognised by Our Tradition journal as one among 5 progressive examples of public artwork. Her monumental sculpture Calling the Earth to Witness was commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
See extra of her work on her web site or Instagram.
When did you first fall in love with artwork?
I’ve beloved portray and drawing for so long as I can bear in mind as a baby rising up in Kathmandu. Portray, particularly, was one thing I naturally gravitated towards, which has continued to this present day. On the similar time, being an artist was not in my vocabulary and I hadn’t but met an artist, so I didn’t comprehend it was one thing one can do as a career. Artwork was merely one thing I saved doing as a result of it felt proper. The concept this could possibly be my work got here later. What began as intuition slowly grew to become function.
Language, particularly Nepali and Sanskrit, lies on the coronary heart of your work – as does graffiti. What drew you to script and textual content as a creative medium, and the way did graffiti tradition form the best way you’re employed with mantras and religious themes?
Graffiti entered my life via my mentor Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, who launched me to murals and lettering on the similar time. I didn’t develop up with graffiti tradition in Nepal, so I used to be studying it from the start, with numerous enthusiasm and curiosity. I used to be drawn to lettering types, how artists might stretch and bend varieties with colours, giving letters a lot character. Taking a look at letters as photographs opened one thing up for me. In some unspecified time in the future I requested myself, what would occur if I wrote in Nepali as a substitute? I discovered to jot down in Nepali earlier than I discovered English, so these letterforms come extra naturally to me. Stylising Devanagari allowed me to essentially discover my voice and make the work my very own.
Over time, I started mixing that basis with the mindfulness practices I grew up with in Nepal. I slowed down and used extra brushwork. Writing the identical letter or mantra repeatedly felt meditative. That evolution led me to the model I work in now.
I need Devanagari to have a presence alongside the aesthetic lettering traditions of the world. These scripts carry centuries of historical past and are nonetheless residing languages. They need to be seen inside up to date artwork and public area.
“IMAGINE” is your mom’s title translated into English. Are you able to discuss selecting this as your artist title?
I selected “IMAGINE” as my artist title as a result of it’s a translation of my mom’s title, Kalpana, which suggests creativeness. Once I first moved to america, I used to be new, removed from dwelling, and I missed my mother deeply. I nonetheless do. Taking her title in translation felt like a option to maintain her near my coronary heart whereas constructing a life and profession in a distinct nation. Signing together with her title grew to become a reminder of her energy and of what she instilled in me concerning the significance of tradition.
Your immigration journey clearly shapes your artwork, notably the Celebration sequence. You’ve mentioned it price you “essentially the most useful factor in life – time with household.” How do you hope your work transforms the best way folks see the immigrant expertise?
Leaving dwelling meant lacking birthdays, rituals, extraordinary dinners and the small moments that maintain a household collectively. Once I say it price me essentially the most useful factor in life, I imply that I can’t take again that point and I’m aware of what needed to be given up as a way to be the place I’m.
The Celebration sequence comes from that place. Every portray layers Nepali calligraphic varieties drawn from the names of immigration paperwork persons are required to finish over a few years. The color palettes are impressed by festive clothes worn by my mother throughout cultural celebrations that occurred whereas the artist was away from dwelling in Kathmandu. Even in her daughter’s absence, my mother continued to uphold traditions, dressing for celebrations and transferring via life with dignity and resolve. The work carry the love and resilience of our family members throughout immigration distances.
What has been the proudest second of your creative profession up to now?
With the ability to categorical myself in essentially the most genuine means I can whereas concurrently carrying my folks with me and doing this as my profession… All of it brings me a lot pleasure and delight, so it’s exhausting to seek out the “proudest” second.
I can inform you about my day yesterday, the place I spoke about my just lately acquired sculpture, Dwarpalika, on the Harvard Artwork Museums. I felt numerous delight as a result of the construction of the sculpture is impressed by the arched doorways of temples and conventional Newari houses in Kathmandu. The sculpture consists of unsealed brass, a cloth traditionally utilized in ritual objects in Nepal and South Asia. Brass naturally patinas over time and is historically polished earlier than vital ceremonies. Through the acquisition course of, we mentioned how the museum would look after the work. The brass can oxidise and be polished once more, persevering with the cycle of renewal that exists in its cultural context. It was vital to me that the dialog embody not simply the preservation of the thing, however the preservation of the custom related to it.
Museums form how cultures are seen, understood and valued and… I really feel delight that even lengthy after I’m gone, Dwarpalika can contribute to protecting historic traditions and narratives alive. It’s so vital for cultural tales to be advised from and by the folks of the tradition.
The title Dwarpalika means temple guardian in Sanskrit, and I consider the work as guarding narratives and residing traditions.
A couple of months into 2026, are there any artists or exhibitions inspiring you proper now?
An exhibition that has deeply impressed me is An Indigenous Current, curated by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter on the Institute of Up to date Artwork Boston. The present brings collectively Native North American artists working throughout abstraction in varied mediums. There was a lot to like about this present: it was highly effective to see an artist collaborate with an establishment to inform an genuine story. What I beloved most is how the exhibition challenges the traditional framing of what’s “Indigenous artwork.” It reveals works from elders to rising artists, displaying that cultural lineage and historical past will not be one thing fastened or archival. I used to be impressed to assume that possibly much more marginalised cultures could be seen within the current second with ongoing cultural presence and residing cultures as components of lively up to date conversations.
Caroline Monnet’s work particularly stood out to me. Monnet engages abstraction and structure, and creates these visually sturdy buildings which can be telling tales from her Indigenous data programs. This actually resonated with my very own apply.
