Ranu Mukherjee

Ranu Mukherjee, hold the chaos, 2024, pigment, cristalina, UV inkjet and silk and cotton sari fabric on linen, 72 in x 108 in (182.9 x 274.3 cm)

BIOGRAPHY

Ranu Mukherjee (b. 1966, Boston) makes hybrid work in painting, moving image and installation. Her work is marked by a deliberate use of saturated color, the collision of tempos, and sensual materiality. The numerous and often imperceptible layers she employs evoke questions of visibility, legibility and abstraction. Her recent artwork is guided by the forces of ecology and non-human agency, diaspora and migration, motherhood and transnational feminisms.

Mukherjee’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles (2022-2023) de Young Museum, San Francisco (2018-2019); the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design (2017); the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2016); the Tarble Art Center, Charleston, IL (2016) and the San Jose Museum of Art, CA (2012) among others. Her immersive video installations have been presented in Natasha, Singapore Biennale 2022-2023, Karachi Biennial (2019) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016) as well as numerous group exhibitions internationally. Mukherjee has been the recipient of the 16th annual San Francisco Bay Area Artadia Awards (2023); a Pollock Krasner Grant (2020); a Lucas Visual Arts Fellowship at Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA (2019-2024); an 18th Street Arts Center Residency, Los Angeles(2022); Facebook AIR (2020);  de Young Museum Artist Studio Program (2017); the Space 118 Residency, Mumbai (2014); and a Kala Fellowship Award and Residency, Berkeley (2009). Her work is in the permanent collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; De Young Museum, San Francisco; the JP Morgan Chase Collection, New York; the Kadist Foundation, San Francisco and Paris; the Oakland Museum of California; the San Jose Museum of Art; and the San Francisco International Airport, among others.

Mukherjee co-created Orphan Drift, a London-based cyber-feminist collective and avatar making combined media works since 1994. They have participated in numerous exhibitions and screenings internationally including in London, Oslo, Berlin, Oberhausen, Glasgow, Istanbul, Vancouver, Santiago, Capetown, and the Bay Area.

Mukherjee received her B.F.A. in Painting, from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA in 1988, and her MFA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London, UK in 1993. She now lives and works in San Francisco, and is the Chair of the film program at California College of the Arts. 

Download Curriculum Vitae

Seven Museums Acquire Work by Gallery Wendi Norris Artists
Poetry Reading x Artist Talk
From the Vault: Ranu Mukherjee, "Future Shock," and Approaching Equilibrium through Layers
Wattis Journal
A completely matter of fact acceptance of the agency of nonhuman beings of many kinds
Critic's Picks: 0rphan Drift
See migration, its ‘traces, tracks and pathways,’ at MECA
An uncertain approach to political art at di Rosa
Ranu Mukherjee: A Bright Stage | de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Part Two of di Rosa’s ‘Be Not Still’ a Lesson in the Importance of Being Earnest
BEYOND TRANSNATIONALISM
Beat the Crowds: Visit Visual Art on a Smaller Scale this Summer
Faculty Spotlight
Bodies of Work
Asunder No More, SFAC Gallery Expands and Reopens Civic Center
Ranu Mukherjee Unearths Buried Histories in ‘Extracted’ Trilogy
Gallery Wendi Norris Group Hang
Seeing Time – Time Traveler
San Francisco Art Gallery Reviews for September
Bay Area Now 6
Absorption into the Nomadic and Luminous
Absorption into the Nomadic and Luminous
Frida Kahlo Body Cast Featured in Opening Exhibit at New Frey Norris Gallery

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