TSHERIN SHERPA

Sherpa studied traditional Tibetan thangka painting from the age of twelve under the guidance of his father, Master Urgen Dorje, a renowned thangka artist from Ngyalam, Tibet. After six years of intense formal training, he left to study Mandarin and computer science in Taiwan. Three years later, he returned to Nepal working with his father in numerous projects that included painting thangkas and monastery murals.

In 1998 he moved to the USA working as a thangka artist and as an instructor at several Buddhist centers in California. In recent years his emphasis has shifted from traditional subjects to more contemporary concerns, including imagining what traditional Tibetan spirits would now look like if they too had left Tibet and journeyed with him to California. His technique is precise and as immaculate as ever, but the new Tibeto/Californian spirits are possessed of a revitalised energy: some depicted as children, others shown as quaintly demonic or possessed of a cocksure sexiness. Often he appropriates globalised icons and logos of mass culture and luxury branding, taken from the internet, in a style he calls CyberPop.