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Lot Essay
Ranjani Shettar’s practice is based in Karnataka, India, and focuses on the phenomenological relationship between humans and the space they occupy. The artist combines industrial, manmade and organic materials to blur distinctions between traditional craft and the Duchampian concept of the found object. She uses everyday materials like wood, beeswax and mud to create high art. “As a viewer you are struck by Shettar’s play with light as with her understanding of the extents of gravity. Her preferred materials – beeswax, wood, stone, tamarind seed paste, saw dust – are all sourced from her immediate surroundings and range from the mundane to the unexpected. It is evident that she enjoys working with organic elements. Even her works, which don’t directly emulate nature, somehow induce connections with the natural world.” (P. Ray, ‘Inside Outside’, Arts Illustrated, April-May 2015, p. 43)
March 2018 marks a major milestone for Shettar, as her work Seven ponds and a few raindrops will be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her work has already been the subject of several museum exhibitions including solo shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston (2008); the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth (2008-9); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009); and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2011). Her works have also been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); the Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi (2011, 2012, 2013); the Moscow Biennale (2013); the Lyon Biennial (2007); the Sharjah Biennial (2007); the Wexner Center, Ohio (2005) and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003). In 2012, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the artist created Varsha, a limited edition artist book featuring original text by Anita Desai, now also on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
March 2018 marks a major milestone for Shettar, as her work Seven ponds and a few raindrops will be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her work has already been the subject of several museum exhibitions including solo shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston (2008); the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth (2008-9); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009); and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2011). Her works have also been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); the Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi (2011, 2012, 2013); the Moscow Biennale (2013); the Lyon Biennial (2007); the Sharjah Biennial (2007); the Wexner Center, Ohio (2005) and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003). In 2012, in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the artist created Varsha, a limited edition artist book featuring original text by Anita Desai, now also on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.