Exhibition Details

Wrightwood 659 in Chicago demonstrates its commitment to Asian art—past and present—with a major exhibition pairing contemporary art from the Himalayas and its diaspora with traditional Buddhist and Hindu objects. Organised and curated by the Rubin Museum of Art, Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now presents new insights into the art of the global present as well as the forms, symbols, and narratives of sacred Himalayan art.
Reimagine brings together recent work by 28 living artists rooted in the culture of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the surrounding areas, who live and work around the world. The contemporary works in the exhibition span a wide range of media, from painting and sculpture to sound, video, and installation. Among these, 18 were commissioned by the Rubin especially for the exhibition. Paired with each contemporary work are traditional religious art objects, ranging from an intricate gilded figure of the Hindi sun bird Garuda to Buddhist prayer beads fashioned from a sheep bone, which have been drawn from the Rubin’s permanent collection of nearly 4,000 Himalayan art objects spanning more than a millennium.
Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now is presented at Wrightwood 659 by Halsted A&A Foundation.