Kapil Mani Dixit (Nepal)
Visual Artist, Co -curator and initiator of “The Virtually Nude Show”
Kapil Mani Dixit is a well acclaimed visual artist of Nepal, with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas, USA. Kapil is regarded as the pioneer artist in introducing and promoting nude figurative art in Nepal – a country where the word ‘nude’ is still a big social taboo. He is popularly known for his figurative art works, especially for drawing nude figures from live models, the first of its kind in the country. So far, Kapil has done 16 solo art exhibitions and more than hundred group art exhibitions, workshops and performances in Nepal, USA and Australia.
He has received more than forty national and international awards and honors for his outstanding artworks. In 2018 he was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award, by the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), USA, for his outstanding commitment contribution to art and society. Likewise, he was also awarded the prestigious two months fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, in Vermont, USA, and a month long fellowship at the A-Factory Studio Museum of Arts, in Irving, Texas, USA. In 2014, the Government of Nepal felicitated him with the prestigious Arniko Youth Award, which recognizes extra-ordinary artists and their contribution to the society. He has also received Special Achievement Award, People’s Choice Award, Who is Who Award, Outstanding Effort Award, Best of the Show Award, and Purchase Award, in the USA.
In the United States, Kapil has established a ‘Kapil Dixit Excellence Award’ at the North Lake College, Irving, Texas. Just before he returned back to Nepal in 2008, he donated his paintings and established a fund at North Lake College to help outstanding art students in college. The award is still rewarded annually to those students who demonstrate an outstanding artistic ability and commitment to art. Recognizing his selfless contribution to the society, through his art and charities in Nepal, Kapil was nominated as the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award 2013’ by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, of the University of Texas Arlington.
Kapil is also very fond of social work and has been associated with various charitable and noble causes through his artworks. In 2016, he organized a charity art exhibition in Sydney, Australia to raise funds to build a school in one of the remote district of Nepal. Some of his other social and charity contributions includes: Art donation and auction for Maroubra Bay Public school, Sydney, to build school playground for the children; Art Donation for Flood Victims in Nepal; Art Auction to help build two schools in two remote districts of Nepal: Argakhachi and Dolpa; Art Auction to help the Katrina Victims in the USA, and Art Charity to raise funds for the treatment of a Nepali Student in the USA.
He has over hundred publications in his portfolio. In the USA, the leading newspaper- The Dallas Morning News published three different articles about him at different times. In Nepal, news about Kapil’s art exhibitions has always appeared as a headline in most of the leading newspapers like The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, The Republica, The Rising Nepal, The Kantipur daily, among others.
