Re-Envisioning Buddhist Art: Exhibiting a Pan-Asian, Transhistorical Approach

The aim of the future 2024 exhibition, "Re-Envisioning Buddhist Art," is to compellingly convey the Buddhist approach to the human condition. In this talk, Pujan Gandhi, Jane Emison Assistant Curator of South & Southeast Asian Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, will discuss how a Pan-Asian, transhistorical approach, coupled with strategies of display, seeks to articulate fundamental Buddhist concepts and teachings, many of which, such as "Karma" and "Enlightenment" are familiar on a popular level yet often imperfectly understood. By creating an empathetic framework and experience, this highly sensory exhibition encourages appreciation for the vast array of objects and icons created in service of the tenets of the faith.

Our speaker is Pujan Gandhi. He joined the Minneapolis Institute of Art in the autumn of 2018, and has since transformed the display of the department's collection. In 2020 "With New Light" Miya's reinstalled Himalayan, South and Southeast Asian Art Galleries, reintroduced audiences to the immensely diverse artistic traditions of the region by untangling complicated histories and celebrating artistic triumph. He is currently working towards a similar refresh in the "Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery" which will open in the summer of 2021.

Prior to Miya, PU jin served as a consulting curator at the High Museum in Atlanta, worked as an independent curator on several international projects, and also ran his own London-based art advisory business. PU jin was educated at Middlebury College and completed his postgraduate diploma and MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where he also cataloged at the British Museum. While his dissertation focused on early Jain art (c. 100 BCE to 300 CE) at a site in MA-thur-a, India, PU jin considers himself an avid generalist. In this presentation, he'll discuss how he is currently developing a Pan-Asian, transhistorical exhibition on Buddhist art.

You may view a recording of her presentation here.

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