Taragoan Museum in the Capital hosted a one-day exhibit of the Nepali artworks featured in the Imago Mundi collection on Monday. Imago Mundi is an Italian arts initiative seeking to map contemporary artists around the world. It now hopes to use the platform to provide Nepali artists with an international audience. With more than 1,657 artworks from artists the world over, the initiative plans on bringing together a wide-array of artists and use their work to create an artistic map of the world.

“The art collection was supposed to be shipped directly to Italy but we thought it would be better if we could exhibit it in Nepal so that the artists could see each other’s work. We thought this would provide artists with an opportunity to meet each other and talk about their visions,” said the curator of the The Taragaon Museum, Roshan Mishra. He also added that as a result of this initiative by Imago Mundi, Nepali artists’ arts will be featured all around the world which will open new doors and provide the Nepali art-scape with many new possibilities.

The exhibition featured the art works from 129 artists, along with the works from the students of Shrijana Arts College. Two of the best student artworks are also slated to be featured in the Image Mundi collection.

 “The artworks reflect the problems, issues, traditions, religions, landscapes and many other things representing Nepal. Even though this is the work done by various artists, you can still see some of the same elements. There is the reflection of ‘Nepaliness’ in most of the paintings. And that is what we needed, the unique representation of individual artist, as well as some common elements to represent Nepal,” said Jennifer Karch Verze, the curator of Imago Mundi, who is managing

the artworks from Nepal. She also mentioned that the Nepali artists were very supportive and eager which made it easier for her to understand their vision and prepare the Nepali catalogue.

“It has been such a delight to work on this canvas. It was quite difficult at the beginning due to the size of the canvas (10 by 12 cm) but as I started working, it was a great experience,” said the artist Pramila Bajracharya at the event.

A total of 140 artworks from Nepal will be exhibited by the Imago Mundi around the globe once the catalog for the art collection is prepared by late next year.