The Demoness, 2006
Mixed media on paper
91 x 223 cm

artist profile

Gade

born

1971

lives and works

Lhasa, Tibet

education

BFA, School of Fine Arts, Tibet University, Lhasa, Tibet, 1991
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China, 1991–92

about the artist

Gade’s art represents a private, yet universal, journey of negotiation through a set of problematic binaries. One is between identities, as Chinese and as Tibetan, another between contexts, traditional and contemporary, and last but not least, between religious ideologies within a capitalist present. The artist makes pictures that document who he is and what he sees, his underlying objective being to dissolve romanticized, exoticized, and stereotyped views of his native country. In place of Buddhist deities, he paints iconography extracted from corporate America and superhero comics into thangkas and other classical Buddhist formats. Gade currently lives and works in Lhasa, and is also a lecturer at the School of Fine Arts of Tibet University. He is a founding member of the Gedun Choephel Artists’ Guild and has held solo exhibitions in New Mexico, USA; London, UK; and Hong Kong. The artist has completed residences in the United States as well as in Scotland, and has participated in exhibitions worldwide, held respectively at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Valencia, Spain; the Art Museum at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA; the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in New York, USA; and the Songzhuang Art Center in Beijing, China. He was also featured in the international touring exhibition Roundabout, which traveled from the City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.

  • Selected exhibition history
  • Permanent collections
  • Projects
  • Editions
  • Publications
  • Recent news

2011GROUP Roundabout, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel

2010GROUP Scorching Sun of Tibet, Songzhuang Art Center, Beijing, China

GROUP Roundabout, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand

2008GROUP 55 days in Valencia Chinese Art Meeting, Museum of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain

2007GROUP Transformation - Tibet Contemporary Art Exhibition, New York Asian Arts Festival, New York, USA, sponsored by London’s Rossi & Rossi Gallery

GROUP Reincarnation, Doris McCarthy Gallery UTSC, Toronto, Canada

2006GROUP Waves on the Turquoise Lake: Contemporary Expressions of Tibetan Art, University of Colorado at Boulder Art Museum, Boulder, USA

2004SOLO Lost Horizon, Sweet Tea House Art Gallery, London, UK

2003SOLO The Sweet tea House Gallery, London, UK

2002GROUP Visions of Tibet, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York, USA

GROUP Transversing Cultures: Observation in Time and Space, Henry Street Settlement Abrons Art Center, New York, USA