Image: Honolulu Museum of Art
The Honolulu Museum of Art is presenting ‘Divine Disruption: The Art of Tsherin Sherpa’, a major solo exhibition of the Nepalese artist that opened on 30 May 2026 and continues until 31 January 2027.
The exhibition is co-organized by HoMA and the Seattle Art Museum, which the Honolulu museum describes as holding two of the leading collections of Asian art in the United States.
More than twenty works are on view, spanning paintings, sculptures and a carpet. Alongside pieces that helped establish Sherpa’s reputation in contemporary art, the selection includes new works being shown to the public for the first time.
Sherpa’s practice takes the conventions of Himalayan Buddhist art and gives them present-day relevance. According to the museum, his work examines social questions of the 21st century, among them migration and the ways traditional cultures meet the pressures and possibilities of internationalization. Bringing a personal perspective to migration, he asks how the Himalayan Buddhist spirits he grew up with, and learned to depict as a young artist, might adapt to those same stresses and opportunities alongside the people of the Himalaya.
Among the works reproduced on the exhibition page is ‘Spirits (Metamorphosis)’ (2019–2020), in gold leaf, acrylic and ink on canvas, lent by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The museum accompanies the exhibition with a filmed conversation in which Sherpa talks about his art, influences and working methods, and with an article tracing his path from traditional thangka painter to internationally active contemporary artist, including the way his work brings Buddhist iconography together with references from popular culture.
Major support for the exhibition comes from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, with additional support from Halekulani, Sharon Twigg-Smith, the Vilcek Foundation, Ruedi Thoeni & David Franklin, and Monica Wrenn Chun.
