Life Under the Shadow

“I want to tell a story about me. It’s a true story; its not a story that people write.”

                                -Hom Pradham

Through the pairing of acrylic paintings and audio excerpts, the exhibit reflects Hom Pradhan’s experience growing up in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal. As a child, Pradhan experienced challenging conditions among 120,000 refugees expelled from Bhutan. Despite these conditions, Pradhan found the incentive to make art, which helped him find and maintain peace and happiness within himself.

Hom Pradhan began to paint and draw at the age of seven. As a teenager, while still in the Bhutanese refugee camp, Goldhap, he completed the advanced course at the Institute of Fine Arts and Commercial Arts (IFACA). He then became a student instructor at the IFACA, where he taught fine arts, sculpture, and commercial arts to other refugees. 

In late 2012 Pradhan was relocated to the United States, which presented a whole new set of challenges, including language barriers and cultural differences. His painting, however, has allowed him to navigate past these challenges as a visual, universally understood representation of a difficult time in his life. He is a resident of Winooski, Vermont, and is currently enrolled in an early college program at Burlington College where he is pursuing a four-year degree in fine arts. He plans to share the peace he has found in himself through his artwork with the communities that surround him. 

Hom Pradham explains one of his paintings outside his home in Winooski, Vermont.

This exhibit is available to travel! Click on the Exhibit Specifications below to learn more about Life Under the Shadow as a traveling exhibition.