We are delighted to present Wings of the river, Ranjani Shettar’s eleventh solo exhibition with Talwar. On view, for the first time ever in the US will be River (2023), a monumental wall installation with thousands of handmade lacquered wood elements. Their carefully orchestrated angles and scale change gently, permeating the wall, with a dynamism and an invisible force that radiates from the center towards the periphery of the installation.
River, 2023
Wood, lacquer and pigments
432” x 96” x 3”
TG 5003
This inclusive and immersive experience reveals the interdependence between humans and our surrounding worlds, continually inspiring us to further our ecological consciousness.
Taking a dip (2023) is almost defined by what is not there. Empty spaces enclosed by an armature of steel wrapped in muslin appear like a river delta or suggesting a colony of microscopic cells in formation. While its shadow appears to levitate the work off the wall, the rich earth tones, dyed into muslin from pomegranate and madder root, impart an organic quality to the work.
Taking a dip, 2023
Stainless steel, muslin, pigment from madder root and pomegranate
106” x 44.5” x 2”
TG 5004
“Referring to nature and using organic materials, Shettar, like Gego and Agnes Martin, has an understanding of the woven grid of textuality: contained in the all-encompassing net is nothing less than the entire universe.”
CATHERINE DEZEGHER
“Shettar’s installations investigate the intersections between the natural world and the evolution of humankind.”
ANDREA KARNES, Chief Curator, The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth
Flame, 2023
Stainless steel, muslin andd lacquer
134” x 73” x 42” (Variable)
TG 5005
Elegant and curvaceous, Flame (2023) appears otherworldly winged creatures in flight. Suspended in midair with translucent skin-like surfaces these seemingly fragile forms beckon a distilled and evolved living system.
River, 2023 (Detail)
River, 2023
Taking a dip, 2023
Stainless steel, muslin, pigment from madder root and pomegranate
106” x 44.5” x 2”
TG 5004
Taking a dip, 2023 (Detail)
Taking a dip, 2023
Flame, 2023 (Detail)
Flame, 2023
“Ranjani’s work is not…an answer to issues in the minds of Western writers but constitutes its own delighted exploration of materials and space.”
ARTFORUM
ʺShettar has the ability to infuse inert materials with life. ʺ
ART IN AMERICA
“Shettar’s works resonates with an ephemeral beauty that is found in nature. The dynamic forms and texture seduce with their beauty.”
THE SUNDAY GUARDIAN
“The artist’s work…speaks elegiacally to environmental loss, to historic relationships with the earth…”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ranjani Shettar’s works are in many prestigious museum collections and have been the subject of several solo presentations including at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (The MET) (2018), The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (2019), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2011), The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) (2009), The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (2008-9) and The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, MA (2008). Ranjani’s works have also been featured in exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; 5th Moscow Biennale; 10th Liverpool Biennial, UK; 9th Lyon Biennial, France; 8th Sharjah Biennial, UAE; 15th Sydney Biennale, Australia; Artpace, Texas; Cartier Fondation, Paris; Sainsbury Center, UK; Hermes Fondation, Singapore; Wexner Center, OH; The Walker Art Center, MN; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. In collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Shettar created a limited-edition project, Varsha and in 2020 Shettar was invited to create a special print for the MET 150, to commemorate The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150th anniversary.
Ranjani Shettar (b. 1977 Bangalore, India) lives and works in Karnataka, India.
