Join us for the opening celebration of Across Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists in Dialogue with Tibetan Art from the Jack Shear Collection from 4 to 6 p.m. There will be time for viewing the exhibition and mingling from 4 to 5 p.m. before a public conversation between curator Ariana Maki and two contemporary artists who have artwork in the show, Marie-Dolma Chophel, and Palden Weinreb, begins at 5 p.m. The conversation will be live-streamed on Zoom (register here) and our YouTube channel.

Ariana Maki earned her Ph.D. in Buddhist and Himalayan art history, which is the core of her teaching and research. Ariana is particularly interested in the intersections of art, text, and lived practices. She is Associate Director of the University of Virginia’s Tibet Center and Bhutan Initiative, where her work includes digital humanities projects, cultural preservation initiatives, and working closely with Tibetan and Himalayan populations. She worked with the National Museum of Bhutan (2009–11) and has maintained an ongoing affiliation with Bhutan’s National Library and Archives since 2012. Ariana served as the U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Bhutan (2019-20).

Marie-Dolma Chophel‘s work features atmospheric depictions of landscapes and cosmic territories, exploring the tension between chaos and control, the expression of natural forces and the weight of their sensorial impact. Chophel graduated with her MFA from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France. Her work has been shown internationally and throughout the United States in museums, art centers and galleries. Chophel’s work is part of The Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection and she was an Honorary Member of the Rubin Museum of Art (NYC) in 2019. Born and raised in France, Chophel has been living and working in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the past 10 years.

Palden Weinreb was born in 1982 in New York, where he currently lives and works. His multimedia sculptures and precisely rendered drawings follow his search for elusive transcendental phenomena surrounding modern life which approaches a conceptual or spiritual existence, including the afterlife. He draws on Buddhist motifs and ideas while working in repetitive approach guided by a minimal aesthetic. Many of his artworks are an invitation from look where there is a seeming void—between lines, forms, light and darkness. Palden’s work is part of The Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection and has been exhibited at the Rubin Museum of Art (NYC), Asia Society New York, Asia Society Texas Center, Queens Museum and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.