Gyatso discussing his work, Clearlight Tara, in the exhibition Tradition Transformed: Tibetan artists respond

I was born in Tibet when one could walk around Lhasa without running into a single Chinese, and

grew up mainly in Britain, where I attended secondary schools during the era of the Beatles and Vietnam.

I studied advertising in San Francisco, and then worked as an Art/Creative Director for major ad agencies
in New York City in the 80s and early 90s.Over the years I've had the privilege of designing several books on
Tibet, creating logos for ICT, TCHRD, SFT,Tibet Fund, and Machik, and playing the role of the Lord Chamberlain
in Martin Scorsese's film, Kundun.  

A website I helped start a few years ago to enable Tibetan artists to see each others work, has evolved into

Mechak Center for Contemporary Tibetan Art, an online gallery featuring new Tibetan art from both inside and outside

Tibet.  Mechak has opened four  exhibitions/symposiums on contemporary Tibetan art.

I started to make artwork around 1990 with the intention of simply exploring how Tibet and Tibetans
were changing, including myself, almost as one might keep a diary in order to be able to gauge one's stage in life

at some point in the future. My research has sparked my interest in such things as Tibetan petroglyphs,

traditional Tibetan visual arts, Tibetan woven and household objects, and most recently in photography and video

by and of Tibetans. Some Tibetans have told me that a certain particular work makes them happy, or that another

piece makes them feel uncomfortable, and I consider those as good enough reasons to continue making art.

exhibitions

Gallerie Oboro, Montreal
Tibet House, New York

Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe

Gallery Artraktion, Bern

Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London

Sweet Tea House gallery, London

International Campaign for Tibet, Washington, DC

Visual Arts gallery, Emory University

Fowler Museum, Los Angeles

CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder

Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago