Ragini Upadhyaya

Ragini is the chairperson of the Shivata Love Foundation, which she founded in 2017 in the memory of her eponymous late daughter, Shivata Upadhayay Grela, who died from meningitis B in February 2016 at the age of 20.

Intending to establish a modern and well-equipped fine arts museum in Nepal, she was appointed the first woman Chancellor of the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts in 2014, by Sushil Koirala, the Prime Minister of Nepal.

After returning to Nepal in 1986, Ragini took advanced lessons in printmaking in the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative in 1987 on a British Council scholarship. In 1989, she received a scholarship to study at the Kunst Academy in Stuttgart, Germany.

Ragini rose to further prominence at the inauguration of her exhibition by Queen Aishwarya Shah on the birth anniversary of King Birendra in 1986. This led her to receive a scholarship to study in England, with encouragement and support from her husband to enter the field.

After completing her primary education, Ragini attended the Crosthwaite Girls College in Allahabad. She then enrolled at the Lucknow College of Arts and Crafts in Lucknow, India, where she completed her bachelor's degree in Fine Arts in 1982. Despite her family's disapproval, Ragini studied printing for three years at Gadhi Art Village in New Delhi.

In 1979, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala and Bal Krishna Sama attended Ragini's non-profit exhibition of her paintings. This event brought considerable attention to her work and marked her entrance into the progressive circles in Nepal.

With help and encouragement from her father, Ragini established herself in the field of fine arts. She has produced more than 65 solo exhibitions, with the first in 1979, and dozens of group exhibitions in more than two dozen countries worldwide. Her art has been received positively by others like Lain Singh Bandel, Bal Krishna Sama, BP Koirala, and Abhi Subedi.

Ragini Upadhyaya Grela (also spelled as Ragini Upadhyay Grela) (born 9 November 1959), popularly known as Ragini Upadhyaya, is a Nepalese fine artist, lyricist, and philanthropist. She served as the Chancellor of the second council of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts. She is known for her fusion of traditional mythology, symbolism, and modernism in her surrealist and abstract paintings. Her art often features social commentary and feminist or matriarchal themes.