KATHMANDU: Artists from across the nation have come together to showcase their creativity at the national level art exhibition being held at Nepal Art Council, Babermahal.

Three hundred and fifty two artworks of 334 artists in six different categories — traditional art, handicraft, contemporary painting, sculpture, folk art and other creative arts are on display in the exhibition that kicked off on April 20. It is being organised by Nepal Academy of Fine Arts.

Paintings, Mithila art, installations, sculptures, Thanka, and photographs are being showcased in the gallery. The ground floor is filled with traditional art, folk art and handicrafts.

In the traditional art section, artists have chosen various gods and goddesses — Ganesh, White Tara, Buddha, Lokeshwor, and Jambala — as their motifs to create sculptures, Thanka and paintings.

Karma Yonjan Lama, for instance has created a huge Thanka titled ‘Mandala’. He has made nine different mandalas featuring White Tara, Amitabhav, Green Tara, Manjushree, Lokeshwor, Vajrapani, Jambala, Vajrasattva and Pal Dang Lama in one Thanka. The remaining space has been decorated with 108 Lokeshwor, while the Thanka’s border features Asthamangal goddesses. The artist has used natural pigments and gold colour to create the Mandala that became the winner of ‘Rastriya Lalitkala Puraskar’ and won cash prize of Rs 51,000.

Explaining about his work, 55-year-old Lama expressed, “It is about the earth and the elements found in earth such as water, land, fire and air. The mandalas symbolise earth and life. I have been creating Thankas for the last 30 years, and I am happy to be one of the winners here.”

Earthquake, fuel crisis and inefficiency of government bodies are major themes in the works of contemporary painting and other creative art.

Artist Bhairaj Maharjan, for instance has painted Green Tara with cracks and a red sticker — depicting the need to preserve our culture heritages that have been damaged due to earthquake.

In the opening ceremony of the exhibition, 30 artists were awarded in different categories. ‘Araniko Rastriya Lalitkala Samman’ was awarded to veteran contemporary artist Hari Prasad Sharma and traditional Thanka artist Norbu Lama along with cash prize of Rs 100,000 each.

The exhibition is on till April 29.