NexUs Culture Nepal, the art oriented community centre in Bakhundole, will be hosting two solo shows by resident artists, Gareth Prew and Bibek Thapa, slated to open today. Both sets of works were created through the course of the artists’ residencies at NexUs. UK photographer, Prew, will be showcasing pictures of and around Kathmandu City on the second floor of the premises while Nepali artist, Thapa’s instillations will be exhibited on the ground floor. Veteran artist and co-founder of NexUS, Ashmina Ranjit will be curating the exhibit.

Prew’s photographs document his “mental health journey” through the course of his three month residency in Kathmandu. His photos are often vague and airy cityscapes wherein soft contours blur the distinction between foreground and background.  Prew, who is open about his personal struggle with mental illness, says that his images convey the tumult within which resonates with the external, highs and lows of the city, his subject.

Thapa’s instillations are also introspective and personal in nature. Thapa, a Kathmandu local, will be exhibiting a ‘moving city’ pieced together from memory as well as from current images of Kathmandu.  They comprise of revolving cityscapes projected onto the walls on the bottom floor of the venue. The contrivance is such that the viewer becomes the axis of a revolving shadow city.  The exhibition begins today, February 23 at 4 PM.