Sneha Shrestha aka IMAGINE, Everyone's Favorite, 2023
Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 24 x 18 in
By Julian E.J. Sorapuru
What started as a routine errand run for Sneha Shrestha ended with her crying on a bench at Harvard Square.
The Somerville-based artist had just received a phone call from the Institute of Contemporary Art: She’d been selected to receive the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, a biennial award given out by the museum to recognize outstanding Boston visual artists.
From the Harvard Square bench, Shrestha made a call of her own. It was the middle of the night in Nepal — where she was born and raised — when her father answered the phone.
“I was so emotional because it is a huge sacrifice to live here” in Boston, Shrestha said, referencing the distance between herself and her family. “I made a choice to live here so I could create art and make a living.
“To be considered a local artist, to be acknowledged by the ICA,” she continued, “is a huge deal.”
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Shrestha is joined this year by three fellow Foster Prize recipients: woodwork sculptor Alison Croney Moses, photographer Yorgos Efthymiadis, and recycled-wood sculptor Damien Hoar de Galvan.
The Foster Prize (formerly the ICA Artist Prize) started in 1999 as “part of the ICA’s continued efforts to recognize, present and acquire works by exceptional Boston-area artists,” according to a museum press release. In the past, artists such as photographer Rania Matar (2008) and painter Marlon Forrester (2021) have won the award.
The prize — which includes an honorarium of $10,000 for each selected artist — culminates in a solo exhibit at the museum that will open Aug. 25 and run through Jan. 19. In the past, works by Foster Prize recipients have become part of the ICA’s permanent collection.
Shrestha’s artistry has both local and global roots. The Nepali painter’s work mixes her native language with graffiti techniques she learned while working at the Boston youth arts nonprofit Artists for Humanity.
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