| |
- Artist Name:
- Chitra Ramanathan
- Location:
- Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
- Statement:
- My present career as a conceptual artist emerged after I received my Bachelors degree in Painting in the 1990s. Student years at the University of Illinois led to an opportunity for a solo exhibition at the Arc Gallery/Educational Foundation at Chicago in 1994 followed by exhibitions at different art galleries on Broadway's Soho District, New York City, New York that earned me praise from critics. During this time, I received the Binney and Smith Inc. Liquitex Student Grant Award for 1994 and 1995. The award is a designation for "Outstanding achievement in the Painting discipline.
During the period beginning from the mid-1990s I began developing what emerged as a thematic body of paintings comparing the mental emotion of happiness as a visual entity that I consider fleeting and ephemeral to short-lived garden blooms and continually evolving seasons. The intense colors and variety of textures that I use appear to extend the boundaries of their two-dimensional surfaces when combined with any type of lighting, natural or artificial. The abstract figuration alluding to human forms and the presence of circles in my work signify ongoing human life-cycle, trying phases followed by happy spells in a positive sense and life and rebirth as influenced by my roots from India.
Initial inspiration for my current body of work stemmed from physically observing Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France during an extended visit to Paris and the rest of Europe dedicated to studying Painting and French Art History in 1992.
Drawing and painting since the age of four when I was enrolled in a weekend art school for children, I grew up entering competitions and earning prizes since from an early age while growing up in India. Some notable memories include an evening when one of my watercolor paintings was exhibited at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata, India and was awarded a silver trophy in recognition for that piece when I was twelve years old. Earlier, at age of ten, I was declared a winner in a national child art competition organized by Hindustan Unilever Limited, India. The early shows led to my seeking higher education earning a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai India. After moving to the United States in the 1980s, I continued making art, and earned a second Bachelors degree in Painting with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993, followed by a M.B.A in Human Resources and Art Museum Administration in 1997.
My mission is to continue painting and working as long as I live. I have donated my work to charitable causes, including the Madame C.J. Walker Theatre's 80th Anniversary Benefit Auction in 2006, the Indiana Hospice Program in 2007, followed by a custom created painting based on the 1979 Hollywood movie "Breaking Away" placed on auction for the Indianapolis International Film Festival, 2008/2009 and a painted chair sold to raise funds to send foster care children to summer camp in summer 2009 at a benefit auction by the Care for Kids Foundation, Indianapolis on March 20, 2009.
My journey as an artist has evolved over time from a representational background of my childhood and adolescent years in India to the present phase of abstraction, during which I have developed a significant body of work on the theme of portraying happiness as a visual entity. Many pieces from this series is owned by individual collectors and corporations including educational institutions both around the United States and in Europe. I have been teaching courses and workshops in Acrylics and Mixed-media Painting which are the typical mediums of my own work, at the Indianapolis Art Center. I am a current member (2007-2010) of the Committee for Diversity Practices of the College Art Association, New York. I have served as a volunteer at the Lilly House and Oldfields Gardens at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, a member of the museum since 2004.
- Biography:
- Biography from Saatchi Gallery
Chitra from the Sanskrit language means painting.
Born in Thiruvananthapuram, India, Chitra Ramanathan is a contemporary Indian American visual artist and educator. She produces predominantly large scale abstract conceptual mixed media paintings, drawings, prints, site-specific installation works, and sculpture that have been exhibited in art galleries in SoHo, Broadway Manhattan, New York, solo exhibition at the ARC Gallery & Educational Foundation at Chicago, and more recently a 2006 solo retrospective exhibition of her body of work at the Indianapolis Artsgarden, Circle Center, Indianapolis.
Says a recent collector of Chitra's painting who is an art connoisseur and a former staffer of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, "I first met Chitra when I took her classes at the Indianapolis Art Center. I wanted a painting by Chitra because I like the feeling her abstract work evokes. I like the way her paintings make me feel and think; and I like how she communicates so much with a subtle use of color or a tiny brush stroke.....There is so much in our world today that can be considered "negative", that I like art around me that offers hope and that reaches for joy. For me, her paintings do that"-Alice Irvan, President, AIRvan Consulting, LLC, Indianapolis U.S.A.
Her paintings have been described as "tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony" and "Simply luxurious" by Manhattan Arts, New York.
To quote from an excerpt from an interview with the artist, "Chitra's paintings exemplify her love of nature as well as the subjectivity of each individual's unique pursuit of happiness. Her painting procedure often entails making mental notes of a scene in nature, including the lighting, colors, and textures. She then uses these impressions in her studio to replicate the subject matter in an abstracted form, using rich physical textures, intense colors, and varied media". As for continuity, the artist says, "In keeping with my nature theme, I want to focus on environmentally compatible materials that synchronize with our concerns on a green environment".
Several of her colorful mixed media paintings are owned by individual and corporate collectors around the United States and in Europe including educational institutions such as the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Charity auctions include the Madame C.J. Walker Theatre Center's Eightieth Anniversary Benefit Auction 2006, and a custom-created painting based on the 1979 Hollywood movie "'Breaking Away" for the Indianapolis International Film Festival, 2008.
Commissions include a series of post-card paintings, as commission for the Florida International University Department of Art, Miami, Florida, 2005 (to coincide with Art Basel Miami 2005) and a series of ten post-card sized paintings for the Indianapolis Museum of Art's "Gallery of the Machine" in 2006. Site-specific public art commissions include a permanent wall mural measuring 13.8 feet wide and 4 feet high, for the front lobby of Crooked Creek Elementary School, Marion County, Indianapolis, this March 2008 site-specific public art project made possible through a grant to the school by the Metropolitan School Foundation, a public school district in Indianapolis, a pair of large paintings for the MGM Mirage that are permanently housed inside the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Las Vegas since 2004, and site-specific installation of five large-scale mixed-media paintings by the Arts Council of Indianapolis at Chase Towers near Monument Circle Indianapolis in 2006-2007, an annual project supported by the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission.
Academically, Chitra Ramanathan's work has attracted visiting artist lectures to educational institutions such as the Kansas State University's Department of Art, and the Royal Academy of Arts/Royal Academy Schools London in 2005, upon invitation from current RA Keeper and Head Maurice Cockrill, RA.
Chitra earned her second Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting with Honors in 1993 during which period she also allotted time to study Painting and Art History in Paris, France, with extended visits to Giverny, France that influenced her later work. Earlier, she received a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai, India.
She lives and works in the United States, while accepting travels worldwide for invitational visiting artist lectures and freelance projects/commissions.
Quotes of Chitra Ramanathan from the media:
I feel happiness is like a garden. Seasons change and it's the same with the mental state of happiness. (Optimistically) good times follow difficult phases in life - it's a cyclical concept.
I consider happiness to be irresistible, fleeting, and ephemeral. You can never really capture it but instead imagine it in so many colorful ways. I try to put these emotions down each time I set out to create.
Right from the beginning, I think of the visual impact of my finished paintings being exposed to natural versus artificial light and of different times of day, because of the presence of iridescent hues in many a piece. Similarly, textures can "play" with the eye when viewed under different light settings. I have progressively explored methods to capture the best effects of color, light and texture.
Color, light and texture play very important roles in my work, as well as process and minute details in the tradition of Indian Miniatures.
I feel fortunate that my work has got accepted so favorably - people who come across my paintings on various websites have been writing to me, and many have become collectors of my work. I am thankful that my work has traveled to different parts of the U.S and Europe. I have done a fair amount of donating work to worthy causes. Currently some of my paintings are designated for auction, proceeds from sales to reach organizations committed to benefit childrens' causes globally. I wish to continue painting as long as I live. I would like to work on more public and corporate art commissions, maybe liven up buildings and offices that people see every day...
Water - I love water! It is so essential for life on our planet.
|
|
