In February, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston acquired one of Shrestha’s paintings — titled “Home416” — and it’s the first by a contemporary Nepali artist to be included in the MFA’s collection.
“Home416 encapsulates many things within a single canvas,” said Laura Weinstein, the museum’s curator of South Asian and Islamic art. “It speaks to the language and art of Nepal, to the street and public art landscape of Boston, and to the power of words and scripts to express fundamental human truths and needs. It also conveys the unique vision of a Boston-based artist who has made a real impact at the MFA, and more broadly, across the city.”
Shrestha shares the creation story behind the piece, and also reflects on what it means to her that a major Boston art institution now owns one of her paintings. Her lightly edited response to this milestone moment takes us back to before she started working on “Home416” in early 2020.
This article is appeared on WBUR, Boston’s NPR station. Read the full feature here.
Mittal Institute Arts Program Manager Sneha Shrestha in front of one of her murals. Image provided by Sneha Shrestha.