Skip my blah blah and watch this great episode… or read my blah blah first.

I dislike reality shows and competitions. Except the French Voice which gave the world Slimane, mon zeitgeist chansonnier. Oh, I digress before I even started. Digressions are good for creativity & not so good for (un)scripted television. A friend shared an episode of a new Paradygm TV program that challenges two artists to create an original art piece based on the same inspirational prompt. They have a day to do so, and works are evaluated by a gallery curator. The winner basks in TV glory afterglow.

The reason I watched is because it featured one of my favorite Nepalese artists – Amrit Karki. I met him during Kathmandu Triennale last year and his Red Rectangle piece framed not only my experience of the city but my Forbes.com coverage (you can see it below). I was #TeamAmrit from the get-go. His “challenger” was Haku Bibek, a really cool painter and photographer. Here is why I absolutely LOVED THIS SHOW … Contrary to the genre canons, there was no manufactured drama, no fake suspense, no cheap trash-talking. The cameras lingered on the artists and their surroundings without voyeuristic chagrin or a pre-determined narrative. Creative process is subtle, unknowable, sacred and Art Attack managed to capture the vulnerability of it (despite its questionable title). Enjoy 13:00 minutes of Kathmandu and beauty manifesting into this world… The narrative is bilingual but art needs no subtitles. I want a full season series now!

Here is Amrit’s winning piece from Art Attack, courtesy of the artist.

 

 

From my Forbes report on Kathmandu Triennale 2017:  “Young Nepalese artist Amrit Karki created a large-scale painting using an entire hillside neighborhood as his canvas. The red rectangle literally and figuratively framed the transformative social potential of art. It also helped bring focus to the collaborative nature of many of Triennale’s projects.”

 

We had visited the site and saw it inside-out, up close and personal. #TeamAmrit