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RANJANI SHETTAR

FOCUS

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
December 14, 2008 - February 8, 2009

"Evoking sweeping, curving, drooping, and growing organic life forms, but leaving the machined elements exposed, Shettar’s installations investigate the intersections between the natural world and the evolution of humankind."

Andrea Karnes

RANJANI SHETTAR - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery

Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 

 

Ranjani Shettar creates large-scale, abstract sculpture by combining manmade and natural materials such as wood, beeswax, cloth, thread, rubber, PVC pipe, wire, steel, and beads. Her works, which appear to be as impulsive and random as they are patterned and logical, are frequently arranged as sculptural installations that interact with and articulate the space around them.  Evoking sweeping, curving, drooping, and growing organic life forms, but leaving the machined elements exposed, Shettar's installations investigate the intersections between the natural world and the evolution of humankind.  

RANJANI SHETTAR - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery

Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)

 


Her choice to use industrial materials coupled with the reductive methods she employs connects her to the Minimalists, who favored prefabricated, repetitive forms.  Yet, the obvious handmade and labor-intensive quality of the artist's installations relates to her Eastern upbringing.  Shettar's work is influenced by her culture: its craftsmanship and use of natural and found materials, as well as its symbolism and philosophy; a philosophy that is grounded in the animate possibilities of all materials.  

RANJANI SHETTAR - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery

Puddle, 2008 (Detail)



Made with unassuming materials and intensive handwork, Shettar's sculptural installations broaden the scope of our visual field, to include, for example, an image of an invisible atmosphere.  Recycling and reworking existing forms, she also underscores the adaptability of materials and their potential for numerous identities throughout one life cycle.  Ultimately, however, it is by stripping objects and materials from their predictable contexts and adding elements of humor, philosophy, symbolism, and spirituality, that Shettar elucidates the extraordinary essence of everyday forms. 

Exhibition Views

Exhibition Views Thumbnails
Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Stainless steel, muslin cloth, tamarind kernel powder paste, lacquer

192″ x 288″ x 168″

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Stainless steel, muslin cloth, tamarind kernel powder paste, lacquer

192″ x 288″ x 168″

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 
Mild steel (cut out of old car bodies), metal paste
In 5 parts: 
33″ x 41″ x 44″ | 27″ x 44″ x 46″ | 24″ x 34″ x 33″
45″ x 80″ x 64″ | 28″ x 34″ x 36″
Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 (Detail)
Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 
Mild steel (cut out of old car bodies), metal paste
In 5 parts: 
33″ x 41″ x 44″ | 27″ x 44″ x 46″ | 24″ x 34″ x 33″
45″ x 80″ x 64″ | 28″ x 34″ x 36″

Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 
Mild steel (cut out of old car bodies), metal paste
In 5 parts: 
33″ x 41″ x 44″ | 27″ x 44″ x 46″ | 24″ x 34″ x 33″
45″ x 80″ x 64″ | 28″ x 34″ x 36″

Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008

Carved Burmese teak wood, wax polish and lacquered wood

 
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008 (Detail)
Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008

Carved Burmese teak wood, wax polish and lacquered wood

 

Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008

Carved Burmese teak wood, wax polish and lacquered wood

 

Puddle, 2008

Wax and pigments on canvas

96" x 96"
Puddle, 2008 (Detail)
Puddle, 2008 (Detail)
Puddle, 2008 (Detail)
Puddle, 2008 (Detail)
Puddle, 2008 (Detail)
Puddle, 2008

Wax and pigments on canvas

96" x 96"

Puddle, 2008

Wax and pigments on canvas

96" x 96"

Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Exhibition View

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Stainless steel, muslin cloth, tamarind kernel powder paste, lacquer

192″ x 288″ x 168″

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Stainless steel, muslin cloth, tamarind kernel powder paste, lacquer

192″ x 288″ x 168″

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 2007-2008

Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 
Mild steel (cut out of old car bodies), metal paste
In 5 parts: 
33″ x 41″ x 44″ | 27″ x 44″ x 46″ | 24″ x 34″ x 33″
45″ x 80″ x 64″ | 28″ x 34″ x 36″

Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me, 2006-2007 
Mild steel (cut out of old car bodies), metal paste
In 5 parts: 
33″ x 41″ x 44″ | 27″ x 44″ x 46″ | 24″ x 34″ x 33″
45″ x 80″ x 64″ | 28″ x 34″ x 36″

Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008

Carved Burmese teak wood, wax polish and lacquered wood

 

Liquid Walk on my Wall, 2008

Carved Burmese teak wood, wax polish and lacquered wood

 

Puddle, 2008

Wax and pigments on canvas

96" x 96"

Puddle, 2008

Wax and pigments on canvas

96" x 96"

Ranjani Shettar
Ranjani Shettar
Summer garden and rain clouds Talwar Gallery, New Delhi April 27 - September 24, 2022
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
150th Anniversary | The Metropolitan Museum of Art August 5, 2021
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Earth Songs for a Night Sky The Phillips Collection, Washington DC May 16 – August 25, 2019
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Seven ponds and a few raindrops The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York March 12 – September 16, 2018
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
On and on it goes on Talwar Gallery, New York March 10 - August 17, 2018
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Bubble trap and a double bow Talwar Gallery, New Delhi February 1 - December 30, 2017
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Night skies and daydreams Talwar Gallery, New York May 10 – October 4, 2014
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Between the sky and earth Talwar Gallery, New Delhi January 29 – August 9, 2014
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Dewdrops and Sunshine National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia November 4, 2011 - February 26, 2012
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Flame of the Forest Hermes Singapore April 29 - June 5, 2011
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Present Continuous Talwar Gallery, New Delhi January 19 - December 24, 2011
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Talwar Gallery, New York October 2, 2009 - March 5, 2010
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
New Work San Francisco Museum of Modern Art March 21 - July 7, 2009
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Inaugural Rooftop Sculpture Garden San Francisco Museum of Modern Art March 21 - July 7, 2009
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Momentum 10 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston March 19 - July 13, 2008
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Epiphanies Talwar Gallery, New Delhi October 27, 2007 - March 13, 2008
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Recent Works Talwar Gallery, New York March 22 - May 13, 2006
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
The Indian Spring Talwar Gallery, New York June 5 - July 17, 2004
Ranjani Shettar
Ranjani Shettar
Alwar Balasubramaniam and Ranjani Shettar
Alwar Balasubramaniam and Ranjani Shettar
Seeing Differently: The Phillips Collects for a New Century March 6 - September 12, 2021
Art in America
Art in America
Ranjani Shettar May 2009
Art Asia Pacific
Art Asia Pacific
Ranjani Shettar May 2009
RANJANI SHETTAR
RANJANI SHETTAR
Between the sky and earth 2018