Ranu Mukherjee
{{Short description|American contemporary artist based in San Francisco}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ranu Mukherjee
| image = Ranu Mukherjee Headshot.tif
| birth_date = {{birth year|1966}}
| nationality = American
| occupation = Artist; Film Program Chair at the California College of Arts, San Francisco
| known_for = Hybrid art, painting, film, installation, media art, arts educator.
| website = {{url|www.ranumukherjee.com}}
}}
Ranu Mukherjee (born 1966) is a multi-disciplinary American contemporary artist of Indian and European descent based in San Francisco, California.{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee Dear Future |url=https://18thstreet.org/event/dear-future/ |website=18th Street |access-date=29 April 2023}}
Mukherjee's practice includes painting, installation, sculpture, video art, performance, hybrid films, works on paper, and collaborative projects. Her work focuses on processes of creolization, the figure of the nomad, and speculative narratives. Mukherjee’s work also generally refers to embodiment, ecology, science fiction, and the unknown to explore the narrative excess and material conditions brought on by global capitalism.
Education and career
Ranu Mukherjee received her BFA in Painting and Film from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, in 1988, and her MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1993.{{Cite web |title=People Finder - California College of the Arts - Portal |url=https://portal.cca.edu/people/rmukherjee/ |access-date=2021-03-18 |website=portal.cca.edu}}{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee Biography |url=https://sjmusart.org/embark/artist-maker/info/934 |website=San Jose Museum of Art |access-date=29 April 2023}}
After earning her degrees in art, she began teaching at Goldsmiths College in London in 1994. In 2002 She moved to San Francisco, California, where she teaches at California College of the Arts.{{Cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee April 1 – 29, 2020 |url=https://18thstreet.org/artists/ranu-mukherjee-2020/ |access-date=2021-03-19 |website=18th Street Arts Center |language=en-US}}
Art career
Best known for creating strongly colored large scale installations that combine mediums such as print, paint, and drawings,{{Cite web|title=Ranu Mukherjee|url=https://www.meca.edu/about/institute-of-contemporary-art/past-exhibitions/making-migration-visible/artists/ranu-mukherjee/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Maine College of Art}} her work has focus on topics such as colonialism, feminism, and ecology.{{Cite news|last=Waraich|first=Sonia|date=January 22, 2016|title=Asian Art Museum celebrates South Asia as Part of Golden Jubilee|work=India West|publisher=San Leandro, Calif: India West}}{{Cite web|title=Color of History, Sweating Rocks|url=https://kadist.org/work/color-of-history-sweating-rocks/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=kadist.org}}
Mukherjee has stated that most of her work comes from a neo-futurist perspective as she aims to generate creative thinking among her audience. She also penned the term "hybrid film" as a label for her animated art that combines painted, photographic, and digital work into unique pieces.{{Citation|title=Art School {{!}} Ranu Mukherjee's Hybrid Films {{!}} Episode 61|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/art-school-ranu-mukherjees-hybrid-films/|language=en|access-date=2021-03-18}}
Ranu Mukherjee co-founded 0rphan Drift, a collaborative artist and avatar, in London in 1994. For a decade, 0rphan Drift collaborated with numerous people on mostly site-specific works. As an artistic entity, 0rphan Drift is known for immersive and visually complex works which use the sample and the remix extensively. It produced video and AV performance, collage, text and print works, and published the cyberpunk novel 0(rphan)
In 2006, Ranu Mukherjee and fellow co-founder Maggie Roberts restarted 0rphan Drift as a duo. They believed 0rphan Drift’s approach could be applied to the new era of social media, Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality. In its latest manifestation, 0rphan Drift considers AI through the octopus – as a distributed, many-minded consciousness.{{cite web |last1=Carey-Kent |first1=Paul |title=0RPHAN DRIFT: CAN OCTOPUSES CHANGE OUR WORLD? |url=https://seismamag.com/visual-fine-art/orphan-drift |website=www.seismamag.com |access-date=29 April 2023}}
Mukherjee worked solely with the artist collaborative between 1994 and 2005.{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee Biography |url=https://sjmusart.org/embark/artist-maker/info/934 |website=San Jose Museum of Art |access-date=29 April 2023}}
Four of her short films were noted in the Momentum Cataloge as showing ordinary images "where the social merges with the material" in digital and no-digital realms.Momentum: Women/Art/Technology: An exploration into the intersection of technology, art practice, and feminism. Retrieved from
Select exhibitions
= Solo exhibitions =
- 2018 A Bright Stage, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA{{cite web |title=Ranu Mudherjee: A Bright Stage |url=http://sfbaytimes.com/ranu-mudherjee-bright-stage/ |website=San Francisco Bay Times |date=12 July 2018}}{{Cite web|date=2018-05-08|title=Ranu Mukherjee: A Bright Stage|url=https://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/ranu-mukherjee-bright-stage|access-date=2021-03-19|website=de Young|language=en}}
- 2017 Shivery Proof, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Lancaster, PA{{Cite web|date=December 12, 2017|title='Shivery Proof': The art of Ranu Mukherjee|url=https://pcad.edu/pcad-news/shivery-proof-the-art-of-ranu-mukherjee/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Pennsylvania College of Art & Design {{!}} PCA&D|language=en}}
- 2017 Shadowtime, Gallery Wendy Norris, San Francisco, CA{{Cite web|title=Ranu Mukherjee {{!}} Shadowtime|url=https://www.gallerywendinorris.com/exhibitions-collection/2018/8/18/shadowtime|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Gallery Wendi Norris {{!}} San Francisco|language=en-US}}
- 2016 Phantasmagoria, Table Arts Center, Charleston, IL{{Cite web|title=Eastern Illinois University :: Tarble Arts Center - Archived Exhibitions|url=https://www.eiu.edu/tarble/past.php|access-date=2021-03-19|website=www.eiu.edu}}
- 2015 Extracted: A Trilogy by Ranu Mukherjee, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee Unearths Buried Histories in 'Extracted' Trilogy |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/11126412/ranu-mukherjee-unearths-buried-histories-in-extracted-trilogy |website=KQED |language=en-us}}{{Cite web|title=Extracted: A Trilogy by Ranu Mukherjee {{!}} Exhibitions {{!}} Asian Art Museum|url=https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/extracted-a-trilogy-by-ranu-mukherjee/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Exhibitions|language=en-US}}
- 2016 Phantasmagoric, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA{{Cite web|last=Romain|first=Julie|date=May 2, 2016|title=All that Glitters Is Gold: Ranu Mukherjee's Phantasmagoric {{!}} Unframed|url=https://unframed.lacma.org/2016/05/02/all-glitters-gold-ranu-mukherjee%E2%80%99s-phantasmagoric|access-date=2021-03-19|website=unframed.lacma.org}}
- 2012 Telling Fortunes, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA{{Cite web|date=2012-04-24|title=Exhibitions + Collection|url=https://sjmusart.org/exhibition/beta-space-ranu-mukherjee-telling-fortunes|access-date=2021-03-19|website=San José Museum of Art|language=en}}
= Group exhibitions =
- 2018 "Be Not Still", di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA{{Cite web|last=Giles|first=Gretchen|date=June 28, 2018|title=Part Two of di Rosa's 'Be Not Still' a Lesson in the Importance of Being Earnest|url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13836010/part-2-of-di-rosas-be-not-still-is-a-lesson-in-the-importance-of-being-earnest|access-date=2021-03-19|website=KQED|language=en-us}}{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee CV |url=https://www.ranumukherjee.com/pagecv-1 |website=www.ranumukherjee.com |access-date=30 April 2023}}
Collections
- San José Museum of Art {{Cite web|title=San José Museum of Art|url=https://sjmusart.org/embark/objects-1/artist-objects|access-date=2021-06-05|website=San José Museum of Art|language=en}}
- Asian Art Museum, San Francisco{{Cite web|title=Asian Art Museum Online Collection|url=http://searchcollection.asianart.org/view/objects/asitem/88604/0?t:state:flow=a3bc866c-8630-412f-9e05-070aa880341a|access-date=2021-03-19|website=searchcollection.asianart.org}}{{Cite web|title=Asian Art Museum Online Collection|url=http://searchcollection.asianart.org/view/objects/asitem/Objects@21469/0?t:state:flow=a46f1ab7-af0b-400f-8321-b391866e8b2e|access-date=2021-03-19|website=searchcollection.asianart.org}}
Publications
- {{Cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ranu|date=December 12, 2017|title=Connective Tissue|url=https://www.artpractical.com/feature/connective-tissue/|access-date=2021-06-05|website=Art Practical|language=en}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Mukherjee |first1=Ranu |title=Monkey's Fist |journal=Art Journal |date=2019-07-03 |volume=78 |issue=3 |page=125 |doi=10.1080/00043249.2019.1655341}}
Bibliography
- Dance Magazine. “Building Bridges.” Dance Magazine. Dance Magazine, October 1, 2020{{cite web |title=Building Bridges |url=https://www.dancemagazine.com/dance-performance-season-preview-2020-21-2647540577.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5 |website=Dance Magazine |language=en |date=10 September 2020}}
- “Ranu Mukherjee.” In The Make. Accessed March 19, 2021{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee {{!}} In The Make {{!}} Studio visits with West Coast artists |url=http://inthemake.com/ranu-mukherjee-2/ |website=inthemake.com}}
- “Ranu Mukherjee - Gallery Wendi Norris: San Francisco.” Gallery Wendi Norris | San Francisco. Gallery Wendi Norris | San Francisco, October 20, 2020{{cite web |title=Ranu Mukherjee |url=https://www.gallerywendinorris.com/artists-collection/ranu-mukherjee |website=Gallery Wendi Norris {{!}} San Francisco}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.ranumukherjee.com Official website]
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Category:20th-century American women artists
Category:21st-century American women artists
Category:21st-century Indian women artists
Category:Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London