Gateway to Himalayan Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Gateway to Himalayan Art
February 15, 2025 — July 27, 2025
Gateway to Himalayan Art is a traveling exhibition for colleges, universities, and art museums that introduces the main forms, concepts, meanings, and living traditions of Himalayan art. It is part of the Rubin’s flagship educational initiative Project Himalayan Art: a resource that aims to support the inclusion of Tibetan, Himalayan, and Inner Asian art and cultures into undergraduate teaching on Asia as well as present Himalayan art to the general public.
Gateway to Himalayan Art is a flexible exhibition designed to meet the needs of diverse educational institutions, art museums, and their audiences. It serves as an entry point to the integrated components of Project Himalayan Art (a three-part initiative comprising a traveling exhibition, publication, and digital platform), highlighting a thematic approach for teaching and engagement with objects.
The exhibition’s three areas of focus are Symbols and Meanings, Materials and Technologies, and Living Practices. Traditional scroll paintings (thangkas), sculptures in various media, and ritual items comprise the diverse range of objects on view. Among the featured installations are in-depth displays that explain the process of Nepalese lost-wax metal casting and the stages of Tibetan thangka painting. Multimedia features include videos of art making and religious and cultural practices, audio recordings of voices from Himalayan communities that highlight the living traditions, and much more on the integrated digital platform that offers rich contextual material to dive deeper.
Curator: Elena Pakhoutova is senior curator, Himalayan art, at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art and holds a PhD in Asian art history from the University of Virginia. She has curated several exhibitions at the Rubin, including Death Is Not the End (2023), The Power of Intention: Reinventing the (Prayer) Wheel (2019), and The Second Buddha: Master of Time (2018).
