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The Rubin Museum, that legendary building in Chelsea that has housed the largest collection of Himalayan art in the world for two decades, is permanently closing its physical space later this year. As sad as this is for New York’s culture scene, New Yorkers at least get to enjoy the museum until October, and you should definitely plan to make the most of it until then.
The museum’s last exhibit, “Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now,” will be an appropriate, forward-looking nod to 32 contemporary artists from the Himalayas and the Asian diaspora whose work will be shown in dialogue with objects from the museum’s existing collection.
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The exhibit will open on March 15 and continue all the way through the museum's physical closing on October 6. Expect to see 32 new commissions and work across mediums, including painting, sculpture, sound, video, performance and more. All of the artists have a connection to the cultural heritage of Himalayan regions, which include Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. This exhibit will also mark the biggest display of contemporary Himalayan artists—many of whom have never shown work in the U.S.—that the Rubin Museum has ever had as it looks to shift its museum model.
The exhibit will be spread throughout the building’s six floors and include 50 artworks from contemporary artists based in Bhutan, Canada, China, England, France, India, the U.S., Switzerland, and other places. Their work explores complex topics like gender identity, migration, belonging, and technology from a Himalayan perspective. The crown jewel of the exhibit will be a large-scale installation made of colorful prayer flags by artist Asha Kama Wangdi that will cascade down the museum’s winding staircase.
“Rather than exhibit the contemporary artworks in their own galleries, we’re installing them alongside 48 objects from the Rubin collection as a way to create a dialogue between past and present in one space,” Michelle Bennett Simorella, the exhibit’s curator, says in a press release. “Their pairings create visual, thematic, and material connections that invite new ways of understanding Himalayan art as well as the stories, traditions, and beliefs that bind them.”
Participating artists for the Rubin’s last exhibit include Amrit Bahadur Karki, Charwei Tsai, Jasmine Rajbhandari, Kabi Raj Lama, Meena Kayastha, Prithvi Shrestha, Shraddha Shrestha, Sonam Tshedzom Tingkhye, and many others.
Although the Rubin Museum’s physical location is closing, it’s definitely not dying as an institution: Instead, it’s going through a reincarnation of sorts. The museum is looking to rebrand itself as a “museum without walls,” which means they’ll be traveling to different spaces to show their extensive collections. “The result is the firm belief that a more expansive model will allow us to best serve our mission — not changing ‘why’ we share Himalayan art with the world, but ‘how’ we do it,’” Shelley Rubin, one of the founders of the museum, told CNN.
“The essence of this show is exemplified by exhibition artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron’s video installation titled Listen to Indigenous People. While the western world learns the benefits of mindfulness, meditation, and the Buddhist notion of impermanence, it systemically erases the peoples whose ancestors brought this treasured knowledge across mountains and oceans into exile,” Tsewang Lhamo, an artist and founder of Yakpo Collective, said in a museum press release.
You can get your tickets here once the exhibit opens.