Born 1968, Kathmandu, Nepal
Lives and works in Oakland, USA

From a young age, Tsherin Sherpa was trained in the art of Tibetan tangka painting by his father, a master tangka painter. Sherpa is now regarded as one of the foremost contemporary Tibetan artists, although he has gradually moved away from the precise discipline of tangka paintings to deconstruct and explore the abstract possibilities of the associated imagery, while maintaining the refined techniques and rich textures. His works, such as Muted expression 2015, Lucid dream 2015, and This is not a Rorschach 2015, incorporate ink and acrylic with gold and platinum leaf on cotton and canvas, ranging from small sizes to large-scale scrolls and paintings of over three metres. His images of deities and spiritual figures are often fragmented, placed in unusual contexts, or broken up into a swirling composition, acting as a metaphor for the feelings of displacement experienced by the Tibetan diaspora.