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Artist Statement:
Statement
Happiness... it lies in the
joy of achievement, in the
thrill of creative effort -
Vincent Van Gogh
My present career as a
conceptual artist emerged
after I received my Bachelors
degree in Painting in the
1990s. An opportunity for a
solo exhibition at the Arc
Gallery/Educational Foundation
at Chicago in 1994 was
followed by exhibitions at
different art galleries on
Broadway's Soho District, New
York City, New York that
earned me many a 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".
In the meantime, I began
developing what emerged as a
thematic body of paintings
comparing the mental emotion
of Happiness as a visual
entity as fleeting and
ephemeral, to short-lived
garden blooms and continually
evolving seasons. My usage of
intense colors and variety of
textural materials when
combined with any light
situation visually"challenge"
the boundaries of their
two-dimensional surfaces. 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 ...
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Artist Exhibitions:
Selected Exhibitions
2009 Exhibitions:
Invitational exhibition, The
Brevard Art Museum ,
Melbourne, Florida, USA. May
15 - July 12, 2009.
"A Postcard is Worth 1000
Words Exhibition", APW Gallery
Long Island City, New York,
USA. June 5 - June 29, 2009:
Past:
Bi-annual Faculty Exhibition,
Indianapolis Art Center,
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
September ...
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
MAGAZINE REVIEWS & ARTICLES *
Indicates articles)
• * Profile: “Rendezvous
Artist”, Profile Article,
Indianapolis Star
Newspaper’s Fishers>Geist
Magazine, July/August 2007
• * ”Paintings Give Form
to the Ephemeral”,
interview/profile,
Indianapolis Business Journal,
Women in Business Section,
April 9-15, 2007
• * Indianapolis Monthly
Home Magazine, Profile:
“Secret Success”, July
2006
• CAA News, ...
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Artist Residency:
March-April 2008: Washington
Township School Foundation
grant commission to create
permanent wall mural painting
for children in the front
lobby of Crooked Creek
Elementary School, Marion
County, Indianapolis,
completed April 5 2008
Commissions:
"Picture Windows 2006: Urban
Interpretations" July
2006-February 2007:
“Picture Windows: Urban
Interpretations” was ...
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Chitra Ramanathan Biography:
| Biographical information for Chitra Ramanathan can be found below. The artist may choose what information to display. Sometimes the artist chooses not to display personal information to the general public. |
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Age
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0
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| Gender |
not provided
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| Status |
not provided
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| Children |
99
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| Religion |
not provided |
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| Education |
Graduate Degree |
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| Hobbies / Interests |
World travel while accepting visiting artist lectures, artist residencies, public art commissions globally, travel to Europe, gardening, golf, Karoake, music, dance |
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| Favorite Artistic Medium |
Mixed Media
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| Favorite Arthistory Movement |
Contemporary Art - (Now)
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| Favorite Visual Artist |
Claude Monet, Vasilly Kandinsky, Cezanne
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| Favorite Work of Art |
not provided
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| Biggest Artistic Inspiration |
Travel to Europe especially extended visits to Paris, France and Monet's garden in Giverny, France that has influenced my current body of mixed-media paintings. |
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| Why Did You Become An Artist |
not provided |
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| Your Personal Biography |
web site: http://www.chitraramanathan.com
Biography:
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.
During the mid-1990s Chitra began developing what emerged as a thematic body of paintings comparing the mental emotion of happiness as a visual entity defined as fleeting and ephemeral, to short-lived garden books and continually evolving seasonal changes. Her rendition of intense colors and variety of textural materials explored on diverse surfaces such as canvas, Plexiglas, paper or anodized aluminum, when viewed under any light situation visually 'challenge or 'extend' out beyond the confines of their otherwise two-dimensional surfaces. They explore color, line, 'formless forms' as she calls her abstracted figures that mysteriously peek out of colorful details, while hints at circular forms signify the human life cycle influenced by her roots from India, They culminate in compositions and assemblages to form an ongoing dialogue.
Her work ranges from site-specific installations that comprise of murals such as 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, Indiana, USA completed in April 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, works derived from her own originals such a pair of large paintings for the MGM Mirage permanently housed inside the Bellagio Conservatory indoor Botanical Gardens, Las Vegas since 2004 (photo above) and five large-scale mixed-media paintings commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis at Chase Towers, Monument Circle Indianapolis, USA in 2006-2007, an annual project supported by the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission and a 2006 solo retrospective exhibition of her body of work on the theme at the Indianapolis Artsgarden, Circle Center, Indianapolis.
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, Illinois, USA. Charity auctions for offer of her work include the Madame C.J. Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and a custom-created painting based on the 1979 Hollywood movie ''Breaking Away' for the Indianapolis International Film Festival, 2008/2009. Although primarily a painter, related media such as prints and sculptural adaptations on her theme have been exhibited in art galleries in SoHo, Broadway Manhattan, New York, solo exhibition at the ARC Gallery & Educational Foundation at Chicago,
Academically, Chitra's work has attracted visiting artist lectures to educational institutions in the US and abroad, such an invitation from Professor Dr. Maurice Cockrill, present Keeper and Head of the Royal Academy of Arts/Royal Academy Schools, London, England in 2005.
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, adjunct professor teaching positions, collaborative projects, exhibition jury requests, public art commissions, and freelance projects. |
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