Ranjani Shettar

Shettar was born in 1977 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. She earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the College of Fine Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, completing her studies in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Shettar currently lives and works in Karnataka, India. == Career ==

Shettar's first solo exhibition, Indian Spring, was held in 2004 at the Talwar Gallery in New York City. Her work has been the subject of publications from institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and from galleries like the Talwar and Marian Goodman Gallery. Shettar has received multiple recognitions for her practice, including the Hebbar Foundation Award (1999, 2003), the Charles Wallace Trust Award (2004), the Sanskriti Award (2008), and the Aditya Vikram Birla Kalakiran Puraskar (2011). In 2023, the Barbican Centre in London presented Shettar's first major institutional exhibition in Europe, titled Cloud Songs on the Horizon, featuring a series of expansive suspended sculptures throughout the Conservatory. == Work ==

Shettar's work incorporates a range of materials, including beeswax, wood, organic dyes, vegetal pastes, lacquer, steel, and cloth, which she uses to construct large-scale installations. Her sculptures often feature hand-carved wood, with attention to maintaining the material's original surface and texture. Shettar's practice also includes wall-mounted wood compositions. An example is Touch Me Not (2006–2007), which is held in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art collection. Her site-specific installations include works like Seven Ponds and a Few Rain Drops (2017), Shettar has also developed works made from hand-formed wax elements connected with cotton thread. One such work, Just a Bit More (2005–2006), now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, uses these materials to form a web-like composition. Shettar has also worked with industrial materials. Her sculpture titled Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me (2006–2007) was included in the inaugural exhibition of the rooftop sculpture garden at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. While primarily known for sculpture, Shettar has worked in other media. Varsha, an artist's book, was developed in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. In 2021, she created the print Alae alae as part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 150th anniversary projects. == References ==