The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama
100% of the profits from the Missing Peace Project benefit the Dalai Lama Foundation.

Artists Consider the Dalai Lama is a multi-media traveling art exhibition that brings together the work of 88 artists from 30 countries (among them Chuck Close, Richard Avedon, Jenny Holzer, Marina Abramovic, Anish Kapoor, Laurie Anderson, Bill Viola). The intention of the project is to shift the world's attention towards peace by exposing millions of people around the world to art inspired by the universal messages of the Dalai Lama.

Klaudia Marr Gallery has the privilege of being among a few select venues that are representing limited edition works by some of these well known artists who have contributed to the project.

Bamiyan Reborn
The world's two tallest standing statues of Buddha were destroyed on March 11, 2001 in Bamiyan, Afghanistan by the fundamentalist Taliban rulers. These statues were of tremendous importance to the cultural heritage of Afghanistan. Their destruction was not just an eradication of ancient beauty and inspiration but also a savage act of censorship, targeting art and learning in general. This event was met with worldwide condemnation and was a sad harbinger of the violence to come exactly six months later in America on September 11. In response to both these tragic events, I created a body of work to give remembrance to the splendor and peace of these two towering Buddhas.
In my paintings exhibited at the United Nations in May 2001, I rendered the Buddha as a large-scale blueprint. In other pieces, mapping pins which make reference to the global nature of these issues, delineate the Buddha's form directly on an indigo blue wall. This open, dotted contour suggests both absence and presence at once and the inseparability of inner and outer space which the Buddha embodies. The Buddha's hand gestures represent teachings on wisdom, compassion and equanimity, and the Buddha's foot prints suggest the boundary between what is visible and invisible. They are also a reminder that Buddha has traveled there and is still traveling, delivering his great message of peace, compassion and tolerance.

Bamiyan: A Continuum is a 10 x 6 foot grid comprised of 108 panels. On each panel, over an image of one of the two colossal statues, I have painted a seated Buddha, symbolizing the state of meditation, unshakable, serene and indestructible. Bamiyan: A Continuum is in the traveling exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama. Buddhapada is a site-specific installation, displayed for the opening events of this exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, December 2007.