Karan Shrestha’s (b.1985) multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, sculpture, photography, text, film, and video, examining Nepal’s entangled histories, transient memories, and speculative futures. His work critically engages with the rhetoric of progress, questioning its often fraught and exclusionary nature. By blending archival material with speculative elements, Shrestha creates projects that investigate the layered realities of Nepal’s shifting socio-political landscape.

 

His work has been exhibited internationally at the Kathmandu Triennale, Savvy Contemporary (Berlin), Mardin Biennale, Museo Madre (Naples), 10th Asia Pacific Triennial (Brisbane), Dhaka Art Summit, Yinchuan Biennale, 8th Asian Art Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and Jameel Arts Centre, among others. He was the recent recipient of the Prameya Art Foundation’s Pair Award, which led to a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris) in collaboration with Institut Français.

 

One of his recent projects sheds light on the precarious status of children born to single mothers in Nepal’s Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts—regions where state-driven conservation and tourism efforts have often marginalized indigenous communities. His erased photographs of children’s portraits and landscapes reflect a haunting reality: due to a prohibitory clause in Nepal’s 2015 Constitution, children of single mothers or unacknowledged fathers are denied naturalized citizenship, rendering them stateless. Through such works, Shrestha exposes the hidden violence embedded within legal frameworks, raising urgent questions about identity, belonging, and state control.