Rossi & Rossi is pleased to present the artist’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong from the 28th September to the 16th November, 2024. The exhibition will be showcasing realistic landscape paintings alongside abstract and figurative works by Bangdel from the 1950s to the 1980s. The artist’s unique position within Modernism is evident in these works. Heavily influenced by the majestic sights of nature, Bangdel often painted the various mountains of Nepal, as seen in Misty Mt. Everest (1978), in which the mountain’s jagged peak contrasts with the gently swirling clouds. For many Nepali viewers, village architecture served as entry points into Bangdel’s abstract works, including A Village near Kathmandu (1963) and Winter in the Valley (1984). In them, the painterly portrayal of a village is replaced by shifting brushstrokes of form and colour.

Lain Singh Bangdel (1919–2002) was Nepal’s foremost artist, novelist, scholar and preservationist. Born in a village near a tea estate of Darjeeling, India, to an ethnically Rai family from the Khotang district of Eastern Nepal, he went on graduate from the Government College of Art and Craft in Calcutta with a degree in Fine Arts in 1945. During his time in Calcutta, he wrote novels in Nepali, including Muluk Bahira (Outside the Country), Aitaghar (Maternal Home) and Langada ko Saathi (The Cripple’s Friend), the last of which later became known as the first realistic work of literature written in the language.

Gallery address: 11/F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road