Sneha was recently selected for a Studio Residency at the Boston Center for the Arts funded by the Wagner Foundation. Her additional honors include a grant from Collective Futures Fund funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation (2024); Artist of the Year Award by Center for Arts at the Armory (2023); inclusion in WBUR The ARTery’s 25 Millennials of Color (2019); recognition as one of the 100 most influential women in Nepal by the Nepal Cultural Council (2018); a Boston Artist-in-Residence Award (2018); the HUBWeek Change Maker Award (2018); South Asia and the Arts Fund Grant, Harvard University (2017); and Project Zero Artist-in-Residence Award, Harvard University (2017).
Sneha holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University and is a dedicated advocate for the arts. As the Arts Program Manager at Harvard’s Mittal South Asia Institute, she works to amplify Asian art and culture. In 2013, she founded Nepal’s first Children’s Art Museum, providing young people with creative spaces to grow and innovate.
At the heart of Sneha’s work is a commitment to community and cultural pride. Whether through her paintings, murals, or sculptures, she creates spaces where tradition meets bold expressions.
Photo by Mel Taing
IMAGINE (aka Sneha Shrestha) is a Nepali artist who incorporates her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. Her work moves fluidly between meditative canvases, large-scale murals, and public art projects, reflecting a deep connection to both tradition and experimentation.
Sneha is the first contemporary Nepali artist to be included in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s Permanent Collection with her painting Home416. Her monumental sculpture, Calling the Earth to Witness, was commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, adding another milestone to her evolving practice.
Among many public art projects, she is the artist behind the landmark mural on a building owned by MIT at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Main Street in Cambridge, MA. Her artwork can also be found in the collections of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, the Worcester Art Museum, Google, Facebook, and Fidelity.
Recent exhibitions include the solo show Ritual and Devotion, Cantor Arts Gallery, College of the Holy Cross (2024), and participation in the group exhibitions Deities of Nepal II, Nepal Arts Council (2024) and Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now, The Rubin Museum (2024), Wrightwood659 in Chicago (2024). In 2025, she will complete a public art sculpture in partnership with The Rubin Museum for New York City’s Department of Transportation.
