Himalayan Visual Culture: Living Experiences

Elena Pakhoutova, Senior Curator, Himalayan Art, at the Rubin Museum of Art holds a PhD in Asian art history from the University of Virginia. Her background in Tibetan Buddhist studies informs her interdisciplinary approach to art history. Her research explores dialogues in the visual traditions of Inner Asia, art and ritual, art production and patronage, text and image, and narrative in Tibetan visual culture. Her recent interests include material culture and contemporary Tibetan art. 

At the Rubin Museum, her thematic exhibitions introduce and contextualise Tibetan, Himalayan, and Nepalese art. Her exhibitions have included Gateway to Himalayan Art, Once Upon Many Times: Legends and Myths in Himalayan Art, Collecting Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and Its Legacies, The Second Buddha: Master of Time, and the co-curated exhibitions Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual and The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide.

Her cross-cultural exhibitions Count Your Blessings: The Art of Prayer Beads in Asia and Illuminated: The Art of Sacred Books (co-curated) presented Himalayan artistic expressions as part of a universal material and ritual culture. The Power of Intention: Reinventing the (Prayer) Wheel brought together traditional and contemporary works of art and deconstructed core Buddhist concepts with contemporary new media, and immersive and impermanent art. Most recently, she curated the Rubin Museum’s iteration of Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment, which was originally conceived by John Henry Rice of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Jeffrey S. Durham of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.