Kathmandu, July 28
Under the Same Roof, a joint exhibition by Patan-based visual artists Subodh Bhandari and Samridhi Ratna Shakya, opened at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Babermahal on July 16, celebrating the understated beauty of the Kathmandu Valley’s everyday architecture.
French Ambassador to Nepal, Virginie Corteval, formally inaugurated the exhibition in the presence of gallery founder and director Sangeeta Thapa, who praised the collaboration as “a show that so poignantly captures the spirit of a city in transition.”
Graduates of Kathmandu University’s School of Arts (2023), Bhandari and Shakya have established themselves through projects like What Makes a City at Taragaon Next and To Make Sense of the Stillness at Gallery Mcube. Their participation in the India Art Fair 2025 further highlighted their growing regional prominence.
With Under the Same Roof, the artists turn their focus to the architectural fragments of Patan—windows, doors, and walls—as vessels of memory and belonging. “These structures are mundane, yet they carry so much memory,” said Shakya. Bhandari added, “We started with fragments and found ourselves drawn into the layered intimacy of place.”
Ambassador Corteval described the exhibition as “a moving tribute to both memory and creativity,” noting its emotional resonance and cultural depth.
Accompanied by the lighting of a panas and the presentation of khadas to the artists, the evening marked not just an exhibition opening, but a call to pause and reconnect with the city’s overlooked architectural soul.
The exhibition runs through August 16.
