Bikash Kalikote

If you are looking for an intriguing mix of traditional and contemporary, then take a look at some of Bikash’s work. His family originally came from Dhading in rural Central Nepal. His grandfather made khukri knives; his father Krishna worked in sculpture with metal, stone and bronze, and has a black stone sculpture in the MoNA museum. As one of five children in the family, Bikash follows a brother who has also become a sculptor. Born in 1995, Bikash developed his passion for art at a young age, inspired by his father’s works, but did not follow through with any formal training in Fine Arts. He studied at Yashodara School in Patan, then +2 at AIMS Academy. Following that he spent a year self-educating in the traditional methods of paubha painting from various sources and books, as well keeping in touch with other art styles. The ‘art’ of art is for sure a continuous learning curve.

As visitor will see his style is amazing, with very strong, vivid colours. Within Nepal, the culture and wall paintings on the temples of the Kathmandu Valley, as well as the art of Nepali artists Prithvi Man Chitrakar, Udaya Charan Shrestha, Samundra Man Shrestha and Raj Prakash Man Tuladhar, have been a source of inspiration and helped him develop his creative skills. Leonardo da Vinci and lesser-known French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau are historic European painters who have also influenced him to try new ways of painting.

To be honest, his own imagination and painting flare need no mentor. He subsequently took classes in Fine Arts around 2015, where he was also briefly to touch on landscape and portrait painting. However, his real passion is the mix of figurative and contemporary art. Most of his work to date involves Buddhist deities, but this is not to say other figures are precluded. As with most artists, the traditional colours and outline features of any deity must be preserved, and even within his vivid images Bikash keeps to these parameters.

Most of his work is now from commissions and he has a strict set of rules for buyers. Concise demands are required, because it is difficult for the artist to make changes once the painting has begun. As he says, it can be painful for an artist to change a picture once it is underway – and we can surely understand this notion. Besides this, a painting on the scale he produces can take 4–5 months and even up to a couple of years if especially complex. He has been able to make a living from his art and currently has no other job.

Recently married (since mid-2021), Bikash’s wife is an artist in her own right, as a beautician.

Look in at MoNA to see his Ganga painting and it’s easy to see that his style is likely to make a strong impression. In fact the “WOW” factor is the right adjective to describe his style.