ABOUT US
Our aim is to create a meeting point in Himachal for artists, writers
and creative minds from all fields. The arts and crafts of all cultures must become part of the living space to energize and rejuvenate the lives of people and society at large.
ASH is run by artists, as a non-profit organization providing a platform for exhibitions, presentations and artistic debate. ASH initiates and supports exhibitions, projects, and exchanges with other artists and artist-run spaces at home and abroad.
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The Center has studios for artists, art residency programs, an art gallery in Kasauli and Delhi, a growing library, a ceramics workshop, a sculpture workshop and organized agriculture interactions.
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Thom Vink
Founder
Thom Vink maintains a studio at Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives, The Hague, and spends a major part of the year in India. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1990.
Solo and group exhibitions include “Moth House”, Stroom Center for Visual Art and Architecture, The Hague (2010), “Silhouettes and Shadows”, Sinkka Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland (2020), “Wild/Schon”, Emden Kunsthalle, Germany (2021), and taking part in the exhibition “Jump into the Unknown” during the 56 Biennale of Venice, Italy (2015).
He has participated in group exhibitions, collaborations, and artist’s residencies in many different countries and most recently the video installation work “Fields of Dissonance”, has been presented at the Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Italy (2018) and in the solo exhibition
“Up Down/High Low” At NIV Art Center, New Delhi, India (2020).
He is a recipient of many prestigious awards, the recent one being from the Mondrian Foundation.
MekhlLa
Founder
Mekhlla is a Contemporary Indian artist. Born in Solan, 1969. She graduated from Sir J.J School of Art, Bombay in 1990, after schooling from Loreto Convent, class ten.
She got the prestigious Scholarship from the Lalit Kala Academy 1991-92.
Completed her master’s in fine art from the College of Art, New Delhi in 1996.
Travelled to Germany for an exchange program of artists, and the Netherlands, where she got a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1997-98. She got the AIFACS award in 1996 for her drawing. In 2005 she received the B.C Sanyal Award. She has been involved in the field of art education since 1999.
And has been actively participating in exhibitions.
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“It has been my mission to make my vision a reality: to create a center and studios for artists, the day I realized that it was a dream that I shared with my hero, Vincent Van Gogh! I have dreamt of creating a living space for creative minds to come and work with the people of the soil. A space for thinkers to give a little of themselves and have the space and the required nourishment for their soul.” Mekhlla