Ashmina Ranjit born 1966, Nepal, is an interdisciplinary visual artist and activist, with an MFA from Columbia University, USA & a BFA from University of Tasmania, Australia. Ranjit’s works revolve around the crucial socio-political concerns of marginalised communities. She is also the Founder-Director of LASANAA, an alternative art space that encourages experimentation, critical thinking, and cross-disciplinary interaction in the arts. With a philosophy of non-hierarchical collaboration and learning-through-exchange, LASANAA has been pivotal in inculcating creative discourse. Ranjit has collaborated with various communities on national and international levels and through the numerous activities at LASANAA, encouraged her contemporaries and budding artists to push their creative genius to the fullest.
Ashmina Ranjit is Nepal’s leading figure in the conceptual and performance fields, as well as an emblematic voice in South Asian feminist art making and activism. From the time of the revolutionary civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s, Ranjit produced several legendary interventions/performances in public space (in the royal quarters at the heart of Kathmandu), widely remembered beyond the art circles, highlighting the ongoing violence, class struggle, and gender issues that were at the forefront of society’s upheavals at the time. Her impact has gone far beyond the art community and participated in national debates, marking a rare case in which performance, and art in general, manages to participate in public intellectual and political debates. After the establishment of a democratic republic in Nepal, Ranjit pursued her work with a particular focus on women’s issues across the country, on subjects such as menstrual discrimination and violence against women.
Her work has been collected by KADIST, Fukuoka Museum, PARA SITE Hong Kong. Ashmina is a independent artist based in Nepal.