The eighth National Fine Arts Exhibition is currently being held at the Nepal Academy in the Capital. The exhibition, which spans three floors of the venue includes paintings, sculptures and mixed media works by numerous Nepali artists.

On Wednesday, the opening day of the show, Rabindra Adhikari, minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation, awarded veteran artists Bijaya Thapa and Kalu Kumal with the ‘Araniko Rastriya Samman’ while Sangi Shrestha, Ritesh Shahi, Laya Mainali and Mahesh Shakya were accorded the ‘Rastriya Lalit Kala Puraskar’ along with a cash purse. The inaugural day of the show also included the awarding of ‘Best Painting’ prizes to artists from each of the federal provinces, as well as awards for regional, provincial, and art specific categories.

The Fading Singer, a painting by Okhaldhunga’s Rupak Rai won the best painting award for Province 1. The popular painting was noted for providing commentary on video sharing website, YouTube and its integral role in facilitating modern music consumption. Similarly, Sudhira Karna, Surendra Shilpakar, Gopal Darai, Laxman Shrestha, Krishna Prakash Shah, and Bishwa KC won the award for their respective provinces. 

A purse of Rs 25,000 was given away to artists in the ‘special’ category including Rajkumar Panta, Sundar Lama, and Basun Rai for modern painting, Maila Dong and Rajani Sikhwal for traditional painting, Bhusan Duwal and Ramesh Kathayat for modern sculpture, Birju Shakya and Ushan Shakya for traditional sculpture, Mim Bahadur Rana Magar,  Rajendra Doshar for handicrafts, and Sanchita Chaudhary and Sarita Mandal for folk art. 

Lastly, Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Ramesh Duwal, Sudan Shrestha, and Dhrubaraj Sharma were also awarded in the creativity category while Ramdayal Rakesh and Binita Marahatta were accorded the Rastriya Lalit Kala Lekhan Puraskar and Sanchar Madhyam Lalit Kala Puraskar respectively.

The exhibition is slated to run until April 29.