I first encountered western art when I was young boy studying in one of the first exclusive public school in Thimphu. Leaving my conventional English school I spent several years as an apprentice studying the religious and mythological art of Bhutan at the National Fine Art Centre. After the apprenticeship, I entered joined the service of the Royal Government as an illustrator/designer for the Development Support Communications Division. I produced artworks to enhance development programs of the Royal Government.
In 1991 I won a scholarship from the British Government to study western art at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Maidstone, University of Kent in England. I graduated with a first class hon’s degree in communications media (design pathway) in 1994. I continued working for the government and took an early retirement in 1997 to paint and founded VAST Bhutan with two other artists. Till date VAST tutored and counseled more than 1000 young people ranging from delinquents, high school students to out of school youth.
I have acquired wide range of experiences in both styles and methods which can be instrumental in combining the rigorous and structured traditional style with more easily flowing/expressive form of contemporary art. This helps me to mature in a direction that I am comfortable with and uniquely my own.
Bhutanese subjects and Buddhist iconography are my main themes with combination of modern and traditional techniques. As I have enduring fascination for textures, movements and many symbols in the Bhutanese culture. I have been exploring this aspects ranging from temple walls to spiritual horses that we see on prayer flags.
As the torch-bearer of Contemporary Art in Bhutan, I am fully engaged in dedicating myself to the issue of Bhutanese contemporary art and helping the youth of Bhutan. With full support and dedication from my students and fellow artists we would like to take the Bhutanese art to new heights without compromising our age old traditional art.
Kama Wangdi, popularly known as Asha Kama.
Buddha grid.
Satyr Tragopan.
The Buddha at Taj Tashi.
The Dragon for the Buddha at Taj Tashi.
5 Comments
Hi Kama,
I am currently visiting Bhutan and saw your art in the Tashi Taj. I really like your work and would love to meet you. I will be traveling the next few days and will next be in Timphu on October 8 and 9. Please let me know if you have time to meet and show me and my friends some of your work.
Sorry – as per previous email I meant O will be in Timphu Oct 26 and 27.
Great artwork. I enjoy the diversity of your work and your use of colors. Intense eyes and wonderful depiction of the details of daily life. Look forward to seeing more of your art.
Aloha,
Matt
great work by a man known by every Thimphites… keep rocking with your brush…
I wish I had known about VAST when I was in Bhutan. I had wanted to find out how traditional Bhutanese art is translated into a contemporary vision. I would have loved to have a conversation with you. Perhaps next time
One Trackback
[...] Karma Wangdi, popularly known as Asha Karma, says that the aim of the lungta prayer flags is to release one’s good nature and positive energy so as to accumulate merit and fortune. But he feels that the lungta printed on the prayer flags are, themselves, confined within a square border. Worse still, Asha Karma laments that most of the prayer flags today are made from non-degradable polyester material that trap the lungta for decades, long after the prayer flags have done their work and have come down, littering the landscape. [...]