Against the Current: Art, National Identity, and a Modernist Critique features the paintings of eminent Nepali artist Lain Singh Bangdel. Born and raised on a tea plantation in Darjeeling, India, Bangdel went on to study visual art in Kolkata (Calcutta) and Paris, eventually serving in leadership positions in the Royal Nepal Academy, the Nepal Association of Fine Art, and the Nepal Art Council. A recognized polymath, Bangdel also was a novelist and art historian whose published research has played a key role in the repatriation of stolen sculptures back to Nepal. The exhibition is broadly organized around Bangdel’s historical trajectory and features twenty-five paintings not previously exhibited in the United States, as well as large-scale works that he created while teaching at Denison University as a Fulbright faculty.

Against the Current is part of the Otterbein & the Arts: Opening Doors to the World (ODW) Fall 2024 – Himalayas programming. ODW is a programming and publication series that seeks to dissolve deeply rooted patterns of “othering” and to move audiences beyond single narratives toward more nuanced understandings of peoples, cultures, and identities.