Left: Amrit Karki, photo by Chhiring Dorje Gurung, courtesy of the artist. Right: Disko Valley Bike Park, Leh, Ladakh, photo by Rahul Gautam
Left: Amrit Karki, photo by Chhiring Dorje Gurung, courtesy of the artist. Right: Disko Valley Bike Park, Leh, Ladakh, photo by Rahul Gautam
This summer the Rubin will participate as an art partner at the 2026 sā Ladakh Biennale, supporting the creation of a new work by Nepalese artist Amrit Karki.
From August 1–10, sā Ladakh Biennale will take place across the lived landscapes of Ladakh, India, unfolding at an altitude of over 3,000 meters above sea level along the approximately 210 kilometer-long Leh-Kargil corridor, one of the most visually stunning and historically profound areas in India. Conceived as a non-white cube biennale, sā Ladakh Biennale presents contemporary artworks and practices that emphasize zero-to-minimal-footprint within ecological, cultural, and social terrains, engaging villages, learning spaces, and open geography across the region.
Amrit Karki (b. 1990) is one of 24 artists participating in this year’s edition and the first artist from Nepal to join the Biennale. Following a monthlong residency in Ladakh in July, Karki will develop new work in dialogue with the terrain to be presented at the Biennale.
“I am honored to be present at sā Ladakh Biennale and bring echoes from one Himalayan culture to another,” says Amrit Karki. “Nepal and Ladakh share deep roots in spirituality and mythology, and there is a resonance in how we shape our environments while being shaped by it. At a time when Himalayan cultures and the environment are facing unprecedented threats, I hope to suggest our collective creativity as a hopeful path forward. I am excited to meet artists from Ladakh and from around the world to work together toward celebrating the spiritual landscape and its inhabitants.”
Both a visual and performing artist, Amrit lives and works in Pokhara, Nepal, and has achieved international recognition for his thought-provoking and often durational works that interrogate the bridge between the ephemeral and the eternal and the formulation of the formless. In 2024 he created a five-day performance, What You Have Given Me, I Set Free Forever, at the Nepal Art Council gallery, commissioned by the Rubin as part of the exhibition Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now and made possible through the Marina Abramović Institute.
This partnership with the sā Ladakh Biennale reflects the Rubin’s ongoing commitment to strategic partnerships in the Himalayan region.
As a visual and performing arts professional from Nepal, Amrit Karki has achieved international and national recognition for his thought-provoking works that interrogate the bridge between the ephemeral and the eternal and the formulation of the formless.
He was awarded the prestigious 2019–2020 UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of Asian Arts Scholarship by the South Asian Foundation (SAF) at the School of Visual Art and Design, Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan. He was also awarded the 2020 Creative Young Artist Award in Nepal. The artist’s solo performance exhibitions include Breathing Through the Stillness (2022) at Nepal Art Council, and Undefiled (2021) at Beaconhouse University Gallery in Lahore, Pakistan. His work was also exhibited in South Korea at the Anyang Public Art Project (APAP7) 2023, Anyang, and at Fantasy Island 2023, Incheon. Amrit Karki previously exhibited at the 2019 Islamabad International Art Festival, the 2018 Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh, and the 2017 Kathmandu Triennale.
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