Passang Tobgay’s creative inclinations were encouraged from a young age, and he spent much of his childhood studying Buddhist iconography. He went on to study Tibetan Buddhist paintings at the National Institute of Zorig Chusum (Zorig — arts & crafts, Chusum — thirteen) in Thimphu, Bhutan. Then, he graduated in 2006 and joined VAST, Voluntary Artists Studio, Thimphu, where he participated in many art projects and group shows. In 2010, he moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He graduated with Fine Arts & Design in 2015 and currently resides in Thimphu, Bhutan.

Tobgay’s long-standing Buddhist art practice and fascination with an ancient sand Mandala creation led him to begin exploring sand as a precious material resource.
Tobgay pursued his art practice by creating his large-scale temporary sculpture installations and drawings. It is like following a trace of precious memory, which encourages the mind to travel between astonishment and wonder.

According to Buddhist scripture, the sand transmits positive energies to the environment and the people who view them. It’s believed to be purifying. His art radiates an intense beauty and tranquillity and conveys something ineffable, yet endless and full of surprises.

The field of modern and contemporary art is crowded with artists who have worked with unconventional materials. Tobgay uses sand and pigment to create mental landscapes, miniatures of the mind that act as a symbolic and surrealist theatre of memory. Yet, he doesn’t seem to choose materials merely for the sake of novelty or originality. His artistic practice combines meticulous craftsmanship with the experimentation of intricate patterns and fantasy iconography.

Memories seem to change and vanish as time goes by; however, he seeks to capture a frozen moment that cannot be attained through writing. Installation, entitled “Perfect Balance of Imminence and Transcendence” (2015), not only challenged notions of time and history but also exercised the perception that are at once futile yet necessary to raise awareness of temporal things. Whether they are material or mental events or compounded objects in a continuous change of condition; they are subject to decline and destruction.

An essential aspect of the installation is the dismantling of his work at the end of each show, which symbolizes the fleetingness of life, and dispersed into flowing water – a way to access the deeper reaches of human consciousness.