KATHMANDU

Taragaon Museum in collaboration with Kathmandu University Department of Art & Design organized a painting exhibition by Mike Krajniak titled 'A Painting Review by Mike Krajniak' at Taragoan Museum, Bouddha. The exhibition was inaugurated by Reshu Aryal Dhungana Executive Director of Fulbright Commission/USEF-Nepal on September 26.

According to a press statement released by Taragaon Museum he was invited to Kathmandu in 1982 as an advisor/designer to an ailing handicraft production project. That project eventually became Dhukuti, a not for profit association that, after 35 years, still provides design, training, sales (domestic / foreign) and market promotion services to hundreds of mostly home based low income women. 

It quoted him saying, "During that time I became friends with a young Nepali artist who taught me how to paint with water colors and oils. Eventually I joined the Kathmandu University Department of Art and Design and formally became an art student. After years of amateur messing with paint and brush I entered a world of serious pursuit … illusion through art. As a first year project, I was encouraged to study the Masters." 

According to the artist, this exhibition is a collection of portraits, traditional Nepali subjects, abstracts and landscapes both real and imagined. It added him saying, "After solitary hours, exploring the mysteries of applying paint to canvas, I have come to realize that painting, for me, is a form of meditation. Combining colors, preparing layouts, composing, controlling brush strokes, and developing the concept... It’s a metaphor for the life experience. Painting is a collaboration between me on the outside and me on the inside. When there is harmony the painting develops in satisfying ways…But, not always."

The exhibition continues till October 4.