Ursa Major Gallery presents
Interconnections
September 14-29, 2013
Ursa Major Gallery and its home of Shelburne Falls, MA will provide the landscape on which Milan Rai’s White Butterfly will first alight on North America. Interconnections explores paper and the role of connectivity it plays within society.
Group show to feature Nepalese guest artist, Milan Rai’s internationally renowned work White Butterfly, and select works by exhibitors of the Khandroling Paper Cooperative, Buckland, MA.
Artists include: Sheryl Jaffe, Brenda Lilly, Naomi Zeitz, Kathryn O'Connor. Tatianna Shannon, Max Shannon, Jacqueline Gens and guest artist Milan Rai from Nepal, among others.
PLEASE JOIN US ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 2:00-8:00 PM FOR ART walk in downtoun Shelburne Falls with a Papermaking Demo and an opportunity to speak with the artists.
About Milan Rai’s
WHITE BUTTERFLY
If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies. Some truth can be as simply put as the sentence above. Milan Rai, a visual artist based in Kathmandu, Nepal, understood this and decided to do something about it.
Before the ‘White Butterfly’ movement propelled him into the attention of media and activism, he was an artist who lived a quiet life in search of finding ways to bring art to the public.
The concept of a ‘Butterfly City’ was a beautiful coincidence. While working on an entirely different project with new ideas in his studio, a fluttering butterfly landed on Milan’s paintbrush. “It was a kind of revelation!” Milan says. “At that moment, I became aware. This small butterfly, one of the most vulnerable creatures in the world, was there in front of me…teaching me so much.”
Milan installs white butterflies everywhere in the city…it could be a broken and time-battered crossway, a fragmentary wall, a busy street or a tree trunk along the pavement. He uses white butterflies in his installations as a symbol of pure transformation , He believes that every individual, like a butterfly, has the power to transform themselves and when this transformation happens collectively, we can observe miracles in their truest form.
He started in his City’. Now, he wants his butterflies are travelling around the globe, creating a ‘Butterfly World’ - spreading the message of love and happiness, creating a world that is aware and ready to tap into its inner power and lift itself from the daily drudgery and for once open its eyes and see how wonderful and miraculous it is…and indeed live life like a butterfly.
http://blog.meld.cc/2013/05/
http://www.myrepublica.com/
http://nepalitimes.com/
http://vimeo.com/73718291 Beautiful video that some film-maker friends just finished and sent to him September 3, 2013.
Personal Note by Milan Rai
About the Journey
"There was never a particular point in time when I declared to myself or
anyone that I would be an artist. While many of my friends compromised
what they loved for what they ought to do in order to be financially and socially stable, I found myself to be lost and without ambition and I could not bring myself to give in to the pressures of good academics and a stable job. However, painting was something I loved and so I did it without any plans of where I would take it as a profession. I started off with figurative painting and then shifted to abstract expressionism with an influence of modern painters , gradually I began to experiment with a wide range of artistic practices like performance art, installations and conceptual art. During this period I came to terms with the fact that contemporary art was becoming increasingly complex and the element of shock seemed to be taking over to the extent of alienating the audience from the work. I felt I had to do something about this emerging disconnect between the general audience and art. So I began to simplify my work in order to seduce the audience and create ways to touch them emotionally and perhaps spiritually. I wanted to connect with the alienated audience and through works devoid of the ego- try and move them. I execute my work out of a pure desire to reach out to the people and connect with them, nurse them and hopefully heal them somehow. In order to achieve that I create works that are accessible, simple to take in yet potent with a strong message of love, hope and change."
Ursa Major Gallery 1 Deerfield Ave Shelburne Falls MA 01370 413-824-0502 ursamajorgallerysf@gmail.com
Lauri Marder, director ursamajorgallery.com
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