About Artist Sarita Dongol

Celebrity Artist Sarita Dongol

Dr. Abi subedi writer/critics:

Sarita Dongol’s oil paintings have made a history both for the painter and the viewers of her works. Art history always works like that. It shows a unique combination of the artist’s experience and those of the viewers. The viewers have a greater panorama than that of the artist because the viewers interpret the work of art across time and space and they have a greater range. But the artist views her history as her own mirror. How she holds the mirror up to nature is her choice. First the mirror becomes a very private affair. She cuts canvases, puts them up in her private studio, gets her palette ready and liberally or sparsely uses the brush strokes on them. In this manner she creates her mirror, her voyeurism that is greatly inward looking. Women artists have created patterns of voyeurism which are different from those warranted by the male voyeurism which encompasses the perceptions of the nude, the foregrounding of the body parts and facial contours. The voyeur is male and that makes a difference.

Sarita Dongol, a talented Nepali artist of the young generation has introduced an element of rupture in the male voyeuristic pattern in Nepali paintings. She has created a woman, a persona not in the finely balanced body shapes but in the persona of trees. Her voyeurism in her paintings should be perceived longitudinally. We can see her tree paintings in time. First, she went to the field, made sketches and carried the richness of them in memory and painted. Then she moved on the stage. She only saw the trunks, as she could not look up. In her journey of perception she missed the foliage. Next she saw the branches, and also hills where they stood but could not cross over. She identified herself with the body of tree but feared to approach it. Then the trees became human to her. She heard the tress. The title of her exhibition became “scream of nature”. Then she began to develop empathy with the quiet, fixed yet vibrant trees that change colours. The trees got coupled, made love, became big and round with pregnancy. The fetus became the locus. Muscles, nerves and wrinkles of trees formed the texture of the painting.

Sarita Dongol saw the trees as stage where the cosmic drama involving sun, sky, air and water are the actors. She saw erosions, challenges and mutations; she saw tremendously vibrant growth of the trees. She saw trees rebelling from their fixed positions. To show a rebellion of the silent and fixed is difficult. But the tree by virtue of their qualities as silent and fixed became a trope of female persona to her, as she confessed to me in an interview. Sarita has played with the colours and figurality of the trees to show the change. The contortions in the stems and trunks of trees are strongly delineated with brush strokes. The intensity of the effect can be seen with every stroke pattern.

Sarita has created visibly contorted imageries in her early paintings. First, to show the tree-ness of the trees she has used mauve, brown and yellow interspersed with black here and there along the trunk and bole lines. But the foliage part is vibrantly green. That is a straight metaphor. Then she played with the very difficult part, which is the humanization of the trees. Sarita has given anthropomorphic form to the trees by subtly placing eyes and lips and giving expressive angles to certain sections of the tree. In this way when we study her female voyeurism with care what we see is that Sarita Dongol is creating mirror in the trees where she looks her own image, and those of women in general. Butthose women whom she represents in her tree paintings are women seen by her, and also created by her. So, here we see a unique pattern of voyeurism that deconstructs the one-sided, hegemonised male pattern. Sarita’s paintings remind me of the works of her senior compatriot, the well-known veteran Sashikala Tiwari who has created similar mirror patterns. But Tiwari’s mirror has a sunburst effect. She does not fix a mirror on a particular imagery. Flowers reflect her, mountains with human dimensions reflect her, the eroding mother earth reflects her and the depressed rivers that cut across the bustling metropolis reflect her. Tiwari’s woman is an ambivalent, plural and sometimes amorphous presence in these variegated images whereas Sarita Dongol’s mirror is a singular continuum—the tree. She seeks plurality in this single imagery. To do that, she has created heuristically approachable schemata.

She divides the phases of her tree voyeurism and then gives strength and credence to her voyeurism. The schema is presented through her own grouping of her paintings in the following manner. The trees in the new series are presented as liberated that she shows through the imagery of mobility. After years of encirclement the trees see the walls and the barbed wire broken allowing the sunlight to flood in. Sarita’s thematic treatment of sadness and depression as experienced by the trees contrasts with the stylistic treatment of that theme. She creates a warm, free and loving ambiance by a combination of warm colours and the wonderful harmony of them. Both the visible and invisible lines run so splendidly well. But she said to me as she showed me the paintings that these canvases are supposed to show depression. I noticed a pattern of certain complexity in the voyeurism that the artist creates. Theme and styles contradict at some places.

But the paintings in the latest series, the series that she links with liberation and, interestingly, with the restoration of democracy in 1990 and thereafter are very eloquent. Sarita follows the pattern of historicity. She projects her own mood of anger and depression when democracy is usurped in recent times. She combines that with the mood of fear and depression caused by the violence of the insurgency. I found that interpretation and the predicament of Sarita’s trees so moving. They become not only her mirror or the mirrors of women, but they also become everybody’s mirrors where each one can see his/her image caught in a catch-22 situation in the present times.

But essentially, what is important is the artist’s perception. Sarita Dongol has worked with these trees, talked with them, touched them in the small hours of their suffering with love, caressed them with the brush strokes and shared their pain. Her burdening them with the sense of historicism and her creation of tension between sense and style reflects an artist’s journey, which Sarita rightly says, is the journey of love and pain. And she wants to see the journey as a woman. She takes the entire responsibility of this gendered creation as her own. But these paintings on display present a theatre where every viewer sees his/her own drama. But I must confess that the total effect of these paintings is sheer pleasure. The rich stylistic delineation of the tree persona, the artist’s intensive treatment of the theme of tree and the mature combination of colours creates an unambiguously pleasant mood of surprise and confidence.The paintings in this series show that Sarita Dongol has achieved greater maturity in her art. I have followed her paintings ever since she worked in a studio at the NAFA attic and these paintings create a history of woman artist’s journey which is not a travesty but a reality that each painting and the themes they seek to dramatise suggests to the voyeur.

Women Artist Sarita Dongol

Father’s Name-Ganesh B. Maharjan

Mother’s Name-Ram Kumari maharjan

Sister”s Name- Ramita Dongol

Brother’S Name-Amar .B maharjan

Husband- Suresh Man dongol

Daugther-Sudikshya Dongol

Son- Sakchhyam Dongol

Born - 1974,Mikabhal,Lalitpur,Nepal

Professional Education:

1992-1994 ---IFA Lalit kala campus, Tribuvan University, Nepal, (History of art & Painting)

1996-1998--- BFA Lalit kala campus, Tribuvan University, Nepal, (History of art & Painting)

2002 (three months) Kyushu Sangyo university Faculty of Art, Fukuoka, Japan,
(special painting course under professor IMAIZUMI KENJI)

2013----Master degree of Fine Art (History of art & painting) Tribuvan University, Nepal


Professional work experiences:

1992-03 Art Instructor at Mitri shishu Bording school, Swayambu

1998-03 Art & craft coordinator/instructor of ECCA project at ( Dharan, Sankhuwasaba, Brdiya, Tulsipur, Dang, gotikhel, Nepalgange, (with street children & disable children)

2007- Private art School Establish CCAS ,Chakupat, patan

2010-till now- Lecturer Himalayan college of Engineering (ARCH),Baneswar, KTM

2010- Art & Craft Instructor at “ SUNAGAVA” Women Mentally Disable center

2011-2013 Art & Craft Instructor at Disable Service Association  center, Bungamati village Org. by CHETANA

2011-“Art Education Teacher Training In Knya college ,Pokhara ,Japan-Nepal FEA

Present Position

Art Educator, Himalayan College of Engineering, Chyshal, Lalitpur

Art Educator, Community Children Art School, Chakupat, Lalitpur

2010-2013... Art Exhibition  Co-coordinator, Newa Chen Art Gallery

2005-2013... Founder Canvas art Gallery Gallery,Sanepa,Lalitpur

Awards:

1992 1st prize in “Human happiness” org. by Srijana Contemporary Art Gallery Nepal

2001 1st prize “The second eastern region” painting competitions and exhibition, India
(Org. by Camlin Art foundation, kolkota)

2004 Special prize of 35th National wide painting competition, org. NAFA

2011- Arniko youwa puraskar samman & gold Medal.

2013- Hem Ghanga Young Talent Women Artist Award, KTM,Nepal

International & Asian artist residency:

2002- Fukuoka Asian Art Museum ,Fukuoka city,Japan (Three month)

2006- Uijea Art Museum, Gwanju city ,S.Korea (Three month )

2010-International painting, music, dance seminar “SAMBHAV” at Delhi, India


Solo Exhibitions:

2000 "Defining Trees” org. Siddhartha Art Gallery, KTM. Nepal

2001 Painting collection Exhibition Org. R.A.P.S Association and MAIRIE de comps, France

2001 Contemporary Painting Exhibition at Mehendra Art Gallery, Pokhara

2002 “Trees and Trials” at NAFA art gallery, Naxal, Nepal

2002 " My view on trees” at Sapporo Station, Hokkaido Japan

2003 “ Creation and Creations” at NAFA art Gallery, Naxal, KTM Nepal

2004 “Revelation of Invisibility” an installation and paintings Exhibition at gallery nine

2004 "Scream of nature” at Lumbini art gallery, NAFA Nepal

2005 Recollection from 1998-2005 paintings exhibition at Buddha art gallery, KTM Nepal

2005 "The sinuous Shapes of Trees" at NANNANSEI NO KAZE Gallery, Dazifu city Japan

2006 “Tree and Voyeurism" at Art Shop, Kathmandu

2012 ‘ Voice Of Nature ‘ The Dipot Gallery II Sydney, Australia


Selected Group Exhibition & workshop Participation:

1991 7th Japan –Nepal Kite Design Competition and Exhibition . Nepal

1992 Human Happiness Painting competition and exhibition at Srijana art gallery ,Nepal

1993 Human Happiness Painting competition and exhibition At Art Council, Nepal

1994 -Vision 51 at lalitkala campus , Nepal

1995 –Image at lalitkala campus, KTM ,Nepal

1996-- 2013---26th,27th,28th,29th,30th,31st,35th National Art competition and exhibition At NAFA ,Nepal

1999 Two men show at alliance François de Nepal

1999 Nepalese group art exhibition at ICAG,KTM

1999 Four men art exhibition at Siddhartha Art Gallery ,Nepal

1999 KAS group exhibition at Siddhartha art gallery

1999 Rangala Bangdel Smriti art Exhibition,At Art Council,KTM,Nepal

2000 Nepal- Tibet Group paintings exhibition at Mairie de Rambuillet, France

2000 International Year of Mountaineering Logo Exhibition .Org ICIMOD Nepal

2001 “ Poetry of vision “ Everest art gallery ,KTM, Nepal

2001 KAS group exhibition at J. Art Gallery ,KTM, Nepal

2001 Six Nepalese Artist’s Paintings exhibition, At Plus Gallery ,S. Korea

2001 2nd Eastern Region” art competition and exhibition, Kolkota ,INDIA

2002 10th Asian art Biennial Exhibition, at Bangladesh, Dhaka

2002 Children without Art, Jasutra Art Foundation, Nepal

2002 Winds of Artist In Residency work exhibition, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan ( Bhutan ,Brunei, Cambodia, Nepal

2003 Six Nepalese Contemporary painting Exhibition ,Colorado and Chicago. U.S.A. org susker.com

2004 “Gift of Sight “ workshop and exhibition At Til Ganga Hospital, KTM ,Nepal

2004 Nepalese Women contemporary paintings and sculptor exhibition at NAFA

2005 “Inishie No Kaze “ Group Exhibiton in Aichi Art Center, Nagoya-shi ,Jpan

2005 Anniversary Art Exhibition Of Buddha art gallery At Buddha Art Gallery,Nepal

2006 Nepali contemporary art exhibition ,at Plus Gallery, S. Korea
 
2006 Khula Dhoka ,Siddhartha Art Gallery Nepal

2006 Uijiae Artist Residency group exhibition At Uijae Art Museum, Gwaanju City,

S.Korea

2007 Three men exhibition At Newa Chen Art Gallery, Patan ,Nepal

2009- Group Nepalese women Art Exhibition At S. Korea.

2010- ‘BARSHA” Group women Art Exhibition At NAFA

2010 –"YAUGDAN” art workshop & exhibition at Fusion Art studio, Thamel.

2010-“Peace” exhibition at Art Council, org. Royal Norwegian embassy of Nepal.

2011- “Budhana “ art workshop and exhibition in Dream of Garden, org. UNDOC, Bangkok, Thiland

2011-“Shree Ganesh “Group Art Exhibition, art Council, Nepal

2011-“Budhana” Org. FAITH/UNDOC, Garden Of Dream, Nepal

2011-“KALASKHTISWERI” group exhibition at Newa Chen,KTM

2011- Women Group Art Exhibition occasion of Teej Festival,Newa Chen Art Gallery

2011- Two Men Exhibition ‘Voice of nature” At Newa Chen Art Gallery

2013-“ANUBHUTEE” Group Art Exhibition at Newa Chen Art Gallery

 2013-“PANORAMA 24” Group Art Exhibition At Bikalpa Art Center, Sanepa

 

Workshop & exhibition:

*Group Workshop At Pasupati nath org srijana art gallery

*Prashanta Smriti Workshop At NAFA,org KAS

*4th Annual Anniversary Of Radio Sggrmaths Workshop At NAFA,org Sagarmath F.M.

*Renown Artist From KTM Workshop “Kala Upa-ban” NAFA

*Workshop At Thahachal Org “ASON

* women workshop at Bhungamati, Nepal ,Org Rotary Club

*Coxing of Nature At OSHO Tapoban Org, SUTRA

*International Nuga Mikha workshop at Bhaktpur,Nepal

*Kulla Dhoka workshop ,at siddartha art gallery,2009

*2009-‘YAUGDAN”art workshop at fusion art studio. Thamel ,2010

*2010-“SADBHAV” Art workshop at NAFA 2010

*2011-“Artistic Happening-painting and Poetry 2010,at Royal Norwegian Embassy, Nepal

*2011-“Buddhana” One week Art Workshop on women with HIV Positive, Women Drug Users & Women In Prison, Org FAITH, Nepal

*2011- “ Peace” Art & Poetry ,Org. Norwegian Ambassador’s Residence, Nepal

*2012- “Mechanism in Native Culture” 5 Days Print Workshop, NAFA, Nepal

2012- Women Art workshop At NAFA Occasion of International women’s day

2012- Workshop at Dhamposha  ,Pokhara, org JK art Museum

*2013- Occasion Of Women’s Day Art workshop at Patan Museum, org, Care Nepal, Mind Trees and Ke Grdee .com

Member:

Nepal Fine Art Association (NAFA)

Artist Society of Nepal (ASON)

Women artist group of Nepal

Community Children Art School ,Founder

Canvas Art Gallery ,Sanepa,Founder

Travel:

Australia, France , Switzerland, Belgium, Thailand, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Holland and India

Country of Art collection:

Norway , Fukuoka Art museum Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea, France, Belgium, Switzerland,

Germany, India, U.K, U.S.A & National museum in Nepal (NAFA), Uijiea art museum, Gwangu city, S. Korea, JK Art Museum, Pokhara

& lot of privet collection in Nepal.

http://www.saritadongol.blogspot.com/