After 10 years of producing wall calendars of photography of Tibet, ICT’s 2007 calendar features four Tibetan contemporary painters who are all pushing the boundaries of their traditions.
The work of these artists shows both the dynamism of contemporary Tibetan culture and the richness of its heritage. The four artists live in exile, maintain connections with artists inside Tibet and seek to promote and cultivate new religious and secular expressions of Tibetan identity.
ICT started printing wall calendars in 1996 to share the beauty – and tragedy – of Tibet with Tibet supporters in governments, the public, the media, etc. They are available for sale ($9.00 for ICT members/$13 to non-members) and bulk rates are available to Tibet organizations, Tibetan stores and others (please contact ICT at (202) 785-1515 or by email at [email protected]. You can purchase them online here.
The four artists all grew up in Tibet and now live in exile: Losang Gyatso (US), Samchung (India), Karma Phuntsok (Australia) and Gonkar Gyatso (UK).
Gonkar Gyatso was born in 1961 in Lhasa and graduated from the Fine Art Department of the Central Institute of Nationalities, Beijing. He is the Co-Founder of “The Sweet Tea House Artists Association.” Gonkar Gyatso lives in London and is a visiting teacher at the London Institute.
Karma Phuntsok was born in 1952 in Lhasa, Tibet, and escaped to India as a refugee in 1959. He studied thangka painting with a master of traditional Tibetan thangka painting in Nepal. In 1981 he migrated to Australia, and now lives in the “bush” with his wife and son.
Losang Gyatso was born in Tibet and raised mainly in the UK before arriving in the United States in 1974. He became an award winning Art Director in New York and helped create Mechak Center for Contemporary Tibetan Art, a group working to create awareness for Tibetan artists. Gyatso lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Sonam Lhundub (Samchung) was born in Kham, Tibet in 1975. He graduated from the Central Minorities University in Beijing and the School of Fine Arts at the South West University of China in Chengdu. Samchung escaped to India in 2002 and lives in Dharamsala.
For more information on the artists see:
- Gonkar Gyatso and Sweet Tea House Artists Association – www.sweetteahouse.co.uk
- Karma Phuntsok – www.karmaart.com
- Losang Gyatso – www.gyatsostudio.com
- Samchung – www.bodpa.com