sā Ladakh Biennale 2026 Exhibition

Amrit Karki (b. 1990) is one of 24 artists participating in the 2026 sā Ladakh Biennale, a regenerative art biennale unfolding over 3,000 meters above sea level, focusing on themes of climate, culture, and community. Amrit, the first artist from Nepal to participate, will develop new work to be presented at the biennale following a monthlong residency in Ladakh in July.

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.

An adult and a child pour liquid into a suspended bronze bowl over a seated man who has red liquid running down his white shirt and pants — *What You Have Given Me, I Set Free Forever*
Photo by Sumit Dangol, courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

The 2026 sā Ladakh Biennale, themed Signals from Another Star, brings together artists from Ladakh and around the world to foster meaningful exchange between local knowledge systems and global contemporary practices. The biennale foregrounds regeneration, learning, and ethical engagement, inviting artists and audiences to attune themselves to the frequencies of land, memory, climate, and lived experience.

Artists participating in the sā Ladakh Biennale 2026 are Zahara Batool, Avantika Bawa, Shupiwe Chongwe, Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser), Tundup Dorjay, Chemat Dorjey, Amrit Karki, Studio Eidola (Jonas Kissling and Denizay Apusoglu), Tom Mùller, Stanzin Samphel, Stanzin Tsepel, Stanzin Wangail, and Urgain Zawa. Additionally, artists participating under Special Projects at the sā Ladakh Biennale 2026 include Jigmet Angmo, Ayan Biswas, Anna Jermolaewa, Jitish Kallat, Peter Kogler, Agnieszka Kurant, Tashi Namgial, Tenzin Olden, Skarma Sonam Tashi, Grazia Toderi, and Arunima Dazess Wangchuk.

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Adult man with long black hair tied back, a black mustache and beard, standing in front of a gray wall

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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The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art’s programs are made possible by generous donations from the Museum’s Board of Trustees, individual donors, foundations, corporations, and Friends of the Rubin.

Amrit Karki: sā Ladakh Biennale

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