Maia, however, is more than a visiting artist; in fact, she grew up in the Kathmandu Valley.[break]
“I came to Nepal with my parents, both of whom are linguists, in 1988 when I was five years old,” she shares, over a conversation at the New Orleans Café in Pulchowk, Lalitpur. Not too far away, at Dhobighat, is the Kathmandu International Study Center where Maia studied as a child and is currently working as a substitute art teacher there.
“I left for Seoul in 2000 to pursue my higher education,” informs the artist who completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the same city. After graduation, Maia collaborated with two of her friends to found ‘Chill’—an artists’ collective focused on independent publication in Seoul. “ ‘Chill’ in Korean means ‘to paint’,” she puts in.
However, the group discontinued ‘Chillzine’ after five issues. Maia then shifted to Italy. “I worked in the visual communications department of Colors magazine,” says Maia, who recently worked with photographer NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati for a Colors project in Kathmandu.
Back from Italy, Maia plans to stay in Kathmandu until July of this year.
“I started writing poems when I got here and that’s how the idea for the paintings evolved,” reveals Maia. The identities she portrays are namely the Sleepwalker, the Lover, the Daughter, the Outsider, the Believer, the Philosopher, and the Stranger.
“I think that gouache is the perfect middle between watercolor and acrylic because it has a delicate sensitivity to it,” states Maia of her choice of material. The artist, who draws inspiration from traditional folk art from Korea to Mithila, adds, “I’m obsessive over small details, patterns and miniatures.”
Maia is currently working on 23 x 33cm sheets of paper but wants to go even smaller in the future.
“I’ll be exhibiting my poems alongside the paintings. But my paintings don’t fully illustrate the poems but only the main character,” says the 27 year old. Maia will be reciting her poems in a performance with two members of Kutumba, a folk instrumental band, at the opening of her exhibition.
“Recollections of the lonesome traveler” will open at the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Baber Mahal Revisited on Sunday, May 16 at 5:30 pm. The show will remain open till June 3.
Related story
World traveler Thor in Nepal
