Jyoti Duwadi
NWDC is pleased to share the art and ideas of Jyoti Duwadi for our next NWDC Artist Interview of 2024.
Jyoti’s multifaceted work—sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, and digital art—reflects an openness to chance discoveries and the blending of Western contemporary and traditional Nepali cultures. He experiments with a wide array of natural materials, including bamboo, beeswax, and earth gathered from around the world. Simultaneously, the artist transforms ordinary, discarded objects—from the humble egg carton to industrial sanding belts—into sculptures and paintings.
Jyoti’s art often engages social and environmental issues. The balance and harmony that he strives for in his work becomes a vehicle to help others find peace within themselves and the natural world. Exhibiting internationally, Jyoti’s solo exhibitions include: Western Gallery, Western Washington University; Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, WA; Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA; Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York & Hong Kong; Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA; Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu.
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Bellingham studio, 2023
How were you introduced to art?
I grew up in a family of poets and writers. Literature, art, and the creative process were part of everyday life.
Where do you find inspiration when creating new work?
I am inspired by the natural world and the arts of other cultures. On my travels abroad and during visits to museums and galleries, I find parallels with my own work. Ultimately, my studio is a sanctuary where I find peace and inspiration.
What do you consider your greatest artistic achievement?
My flexibility to continue making art in all the different places that I have lived while taking advantage of the materials that are available to me at the time.
Installation detail of Reimagining the Intersection of Art and Environment, 2024, a solo exhibition at the Port Angeles Fine Art Center, WA | Installation detail of Himalaya to Cascadia, 2023, a retrospective exhibition at the Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA
What is the quality you most like in an artist?
What I most admire is an artist’s creative spirit that is open to chance, circumstance, and innovative use of materials and space.
Which living artist do you most admire?
Martin Puryear, Andy Goldsworthy, and the artworks of aboriginal peoples around the world.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I am fortunate to have experienced a life full of adventure & quest for knowledge. It is hard to see myself in a different space or time.
What is your most treasured possession?
A physical possession is not as important to me as my memories and experiences as an artist.
Who has had a significant influence on your work?
The ritual artwork of India and Nepal as well as the work of early abstract modern artists such as Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Constantin Brancusi and Isamu Noguchi.
Strata 2, 2024, Earth, turmeric, string, and rudraksha seed on canvas, 12 x 9 in. | Queen Pod Majesty, 2024, Queen palm pod, tamarind seeds, rudraksha seeds, lapsi seeds, ratigiri seeds, rock, pine wood, 38 x 13.5 in diameter.
How has your studio practice changed?
Fundamentally, my studio practice has not changed since I began my artistic journey in 1973. But, I have adapted my creative process in response to the space and materials available where I lived at the time.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Achieving peace in body and mind.
