Messages of Hope & Homecoming
Boston-area artist Sneha Shrestha created a large-scale painting to greet visitors in the lobby of DivcoWest's life science building at 441 Morgan Avenue, designed by Ennead Architects.
Sneha Shrestha, a.k.a IMAGINE, Green Tara 2, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. 137 x 137 inches. © Sneha Shrestha, a.k.a. IMAGINE. Photography by Mel Taing.
Artist: Sneha Shrestha, a.k.a. IMAGINE
Artwork: Green Tara 2, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. 137 x 137 inches.
Location: 441 Morgan Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Partners: DivcoWest, Ennead Architects
About the artist: Sneha Shrestha, known as IMAGINE, is a Nepali artist whose practice lies at the intersection of art and innovative social impact. She is the artist behind For Cambridge, With Love from Nepal (2018), an iconic 60-foot mural in Central Square, Cambridge. Her work appears in collections including Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MFA Boston, Facebook, and Fidelity.
Goal + Impact: Green Tara 2 celebrates the immigration journey and offers a message of hope to the Cambridge Crossing neighborhood. The commissioned painting draws upon the artist's Celebration series, which centers the visa and immigration process and embeds her cultural lineages with an ongoing sense of community orientation. Using layered letters that spell out identification codes from immigration forms—cryptic sequences like 1040-A or I-120A—Shrestha transforms impersonal bureaucratic language into jubilant celebration. The painting's colors are inspired by an outfit worn by her mother during a celebration the artist missed in Kathmandu, marking the end of lengthy procedures and the emotional sacrifices of time lost with loved ones.
Learn more about the creative process behind Green Tara 2 (2023) by watching the video below:
Videography courtesy of Casey Preston, WhiteBirch Media.
