ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, Tibetan artists reacted against the colonization of their visual space and began to create a conspicuously Tibetan form of art defined in terms of who could make it—ethnic Tibetans—and its subject matter—Tibet. Prior to the invention of Tibetan contemporary art, artists based in Tibet had been hampered by a lack of access to national or international art circuits. The art world also proffered a social space that would allow artists from the two Tibets—the Chinese and the diasporic—to actually meet in person at exhibitions in London, New York, or Beijing. The exhibition showcased the work of nine artists of Tibetan heritage: two from the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic, one from Nepal, another from Switzerland, and the remainder from various US cities. If the messages of the art currently made by Tibetan artists are more overt, the works themselves are also more visible than before.
