Draft:Puran Khadka

Born in 1956, to Kaman Singh Khadka and Indrasara Devi Khadka in Ganjra V.D.C - 4, Achham, Nepal. He graduated in Fine Arts from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, India, in 1980 A.D. He has served as a lecturer at Lalit Kala Campus, Bhotahity, Nepal, until 2010. He has done seven solo painting exhibitions^[3] and has participated in various national and international art exhibitions. He has also participated in Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh and Triennale India Lalit Kala Akademi (New Delhi, India) and international art exhibitions, including his posthumous participation in the Kathmandu Triennale 2022.^[4] He is the recipient of the Western Regional Award from the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts in 2010 A.D. ^[5]

Khadka initially focused on realist and academic painting practices. Around 2000, he began transitioning toward abstraction, marking a significant shift in his artistic direction. Over the subsequent years, through sustained exploration and experimentation, he developed a distinctive abstract style. His earlier abstract works, characterized by vibrant colored shapes and meandering linear elements, gradually evolved into more simplified and structured compositions. Khadka’s mature works are defined by a restrained palette—primarily grey-blue, black, white, and red—articulated through solid black lines and complemented by the inclusion of distinctive tan, floating linear forms. Puran Khadka is a genuine exemplar of an intangible artist, seamlessly connecting the mystical essence of intangibility with the enigmatic quality of art.^[6] Khadka’s art features selected combinations of the artist’s preferred grey-blue, black, white, and red colors separated by solid black lines, interspersed with distinctive tan floating lines. ^[4]

Puran Khadka has found that eternal bliss within himself, and one finds it in his work. His painting is that of awareness, however dim or hard to express in words, of profound nature, of a secret union between the artist and the art integrally itself, to the exclusion of any other alliance. His art is grafted onto some richly endowed sensibility which is both honest with itself and capable of giving and communicating with the outside. His paintings do not have elements that undermine the world; instead, they are a powerful medium of understanding the world to reach the absolute.^[7]

He died in 2016. His final work, The Wholeness, encapsulated his longstanding exploration of interconnectedness as a central philosophical theme. Following his death, his work has continued to attract critical attention and is regarded as influential in prompting deeper reflection on questions of life and consciousness. As a painter, he was regarded as a dynamic and contemplative abstract artist, whose works are characterized by abstraction in both technique and conceptual content. Uttam Nepali, approximately two decades his senior, is associated with the first generation of modern artists in Nepal, whereas Puran Khadka is considered part of the second generation.^[8]

• 2015 August - ‘The Wholeness’, Park Gallery, Pulchowk, Lalitpur, Nepal^[9]
• Kathmandu Triennale 2077 -2022 ^[10]
• ‘Sutrapaata Dekhi Sampurnata Samma' Araniko Gallery of the Academy of Nepali Fine Arts in Naxal, Kathmandu.^[6]
• Exploring Nepali abstraction at Taragaon Next ^[11]