Panel Discussion: Me Myself and I- Artists’ Perspective

Speakers: Hitman Gurung, Shreejan Rajbhandari, Roshan Bhandari, Uma Bista
Moderator: Roshan Mishra

This Panel Discussion brought forward four different perspectives on portraiture, mainly addressing self-portraits, an artist’s relationship with the portrait, the artists’ ego in a self-portrait, experimentation of different mediums and their respective creative processes.

Uma Bista is a photographer based in Kathmandu who works on visual narratives that focus on women’s issues, which are close to her heart. Uma is currently working as a Deputy Photo Editor at Annapurna Post, a leading daily newspaper in Nepal.

Roshan Bhandari is a visual artist based in Kathmandu, also a faculty member in Sirjana College of Fine Arts. His works mainly focus on themes of silence and contemplation which he expresses through portraiture in various mediums.

Shreejan Rajbhandhari is a self-taught artist who started his art career in about 1981. Also a visiting faculty member at Kathmandu University, Shreejan’s works mainly with oil and watercolor as his medium and is known for his hyper-realistic portraiture in Nepal.

Hit Man Gurung is an artist based in Kathmandu. Gurung’s works are concerned with some of the most pressing socio-political issues of Nepal. Gurung infuses his paintings, documentary photo collages, performance and installation works with political conviction and personal poetry.

Roshan Mishra is the Director/Curator at Taragaon Museum and a visual artist based in Kathmandu. He also manages the Nepal Architecture Archive (NAA), which is run by the Saraf Foundation for Himalayan Traditions and Culture.