Artists
Tenzing Gyurmey
My work celebrates the history and culture of the Tibetan diaspora in India through intimate portrayals of my family, friends, and close relatives. Having been uprooted from our native homeland and replanted in a new society, our Tibetan culture has become an amalgam of the past and the present. We carry memories and fragments of our history as we navigate a present shaped by modern Western and Indian influences.
I paint on tarp sacks, or Drochak-bhureh (barley sacks), as the Tibetan diaspora call them, because they were an inseparable part of my childhood in India. Given to Tibetan refugees by the United States, these bhureh were an unmissable sight in Tibetan households, schools, and factories alike. To me, this material bears witness to the ways in which the Tibetan diaspora has established itself within a new culture while also undergoing changes to its own traditions. Through these works, I examine and celebrate the space we have created for ourselves as Tibetans in India.
Selected Works
A Crime with Mother
Day Dreaming
