Nepali Receives Multiple Awards in the US
People's Review, July 4-10, 2002
|
|
Surendra
Lawoti, a Nepali teaching photography at the Marwen Foundation and
working for the Photography Department of Columbia College, has recently
been awarded a grant of US$10,000 to support his photographic endeavors
by The "ArtCoucil". CAAP (Community Arts Assistance Program)
of the Chicago Mayor's office has also awarded him for his contribution
to community photography. In 2000, he was commissioned by the city
of Chicago to photograph the lives of the Nepalese community there.
Surendra Lawoti is a contributing member of Spiny Babbler and has exhibited at Spiny Babbler in Kathmandu. In the United States, he has exhibited at Flatfile, Gallery 312, Glass Curtain Gallery, Book and Paper Arts Center, and Hokin Gallery in Chicago. Surendra's work is a part of the permanent collection of LaSalle Bank and Columbia College. He is also part of the Midwest Photographers' Project housed in the Print Study Room of Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. He is considered among the finer photographers of the contemporary art society in the area. He writes that there are about 300 Nepalese in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. He uses 35 mm and 4 x 5 inch2 film to create his art. "The inspiration to producing this body of work comes from the fact that I am caught between two cultures, Nepal my previous home and America my present," he says. "In brief my work deals with the issues of cultures, assimilation and identity." Those interested in looking at his work of 2000 can visit www.spinybabbler.org. His work reflects the community, human values, and efforts at preserving and he has gained a place in the society of contemporary photographers in the city of Chicago. Lawoti had already published photographs in Nepal Traveller, Shangri-La, and the national papers, in Nepal before he went to the United States in 1994. |
