BIOGRAPHY
Rashid Rana (Urdu: راشد رانا)is a Pakistani artist. He has been included in numerous exhibitions in Pakistan and abroad with his works in abstractions on canvas, collaborations with a billboard painter, photographic/video performances, collages using found material, photo mosaics, photo sculptures, and large stainless steel works.
LIFE
Rashid Rana was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan in 1992, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts, US in 1994. He is the head of the Fine Art department and one of the founding faculty members of the School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.
ART CAREER
Rana’s work develop a conceptually driven, well-informed art practice, which maintains a pixelated attention to formal concerns. He explores media and identity – both bound by a sharp political edge as he satirizes pop culture and looks to reinterpret varied elements of art and cultural history. Utilizing such mediums as painting, video, installation and photography, Rana’s works deal with everyday issues encompassing such themes as urbanization, faith, and tradition.
It is the aesthetic concept of the grid deftly exploring the language of minimalism and geometric abstraction that serves as the precious connecting his monumental work to his mentor Zahoor ul Akhlaq.
A foray into video art has resulted in seminal installations such as ‘Meeting Point’ (2006) in which the artist recalls anticipation from terrorism by projecting two airplanes facing and seeming to collide into each other, with the loud airspace audio.
His recent international exhibitions include: Solo Exhibition, Lisson Gallery, London, Perpetual Paradox Solo Exhibition at Musée Guimet, Paris, France (2010), Where dreams Cross: 150 years of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, and Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; The Empire Strikes Back; India Art Today, Saatchi Gallery (2010) The Power of Ornament, Lower Belvedere, Vienna.
Dis-Location (2007), a major solo in a range of media show of his selected works spread across two galleries including Gallery Chemould Prescott marked his return to Mumbai after a gap of three years. Underlining the artist’s notability on the global art stage, an accompanying note said: “He has come to represent an entire generation of Pakistani Contemporary Artists. Moreover in terms of the Indian art scene, he is the first artist from across the border to have been so thoroughly embraced since partition era artists such as Abdul Rehman Chughtai and Allah Bux. Working both on major public installations as well as gallery based works, his art is now some of the most recognisable among artists from South Asia.”
One edition of his work “Red Carpet-1” was auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on 16 May 2008, for a record price of $623,000 US, highest price ever paid for a work of art produced by a Pakistani.
EXHIBITIONS
2011
- Rashid Rana, Lisson Gallery, London
- Art Dubai, Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Lal, Dubai
- Collectors’ Stage: Asian Contemporary Art from Private Collections, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.
- The Rising Tide: New Directions in the Art from Pakistan 1990-2010, Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi.
2010
- Perpetual Paradoxes, Musée Guimet, Paris
- Finding India: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
- Where Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Fotomuseum, Winterthur
- Where Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Whitechapel Gallery, London
- Beyond the Page – The Miniature as Attitude in Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena
- The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, Saatchi Gallery, London
2009
- Art Basel, Chemould Prescott Road, Miami
- Living off the Grid, Anant Art Centre, New Delhi
- View Points and Viewing Points: Asian Art Biennial, National Fine Arts Museum, Taichung
- Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia Society, New York
- The 21st Century, the Feminine Century, and the Century of Diversity and Hope, Incheon Biennale, Incheon
- Mashq: Repetition Meditation Mediation, Green Cardamom, London
- How Nations Are Made, Cartwright Hall, Bradford
- Starring the Artist, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi
- The Power of Ornament, Orangery, Lower Belvedere, Vienna
- Lines of Control (travelling exhibition), Third Line gallery, Dubai; V.M. Gallery, Karachi; Green Cardamom, London
2008
- Hong Kong\ Art Fair, Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Lal, Hong Kong
- Critical Studio: Dialogue with South Asian Artists, Macy Gallery, Columbia University, New York
- Everywhere is War (and Rumors of War), Bodhi Art, Mumbai
- Passage to India, Frank Cohen Collection, Initial Access, West Midlands
- Re-Imaging Asia, House of World Cultures, Berlin
2007
- Solo show, Art Public – Cabinet P.H., Geneva
- Dis-Location, Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai
- Reflected Looking, Nature Morte, New Delhi
- Shanghai Contemporary, Best of Discovery, Nature Morte, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai
- Face East: Contemporary Asian Portraiture, Wedel Fine Art, London
- Moving Ahead, National Art Gallery, Islamabad
- Group show: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York
- The Politics of Fear, Albion, London
- Mirror Worlds, Two Rooms, Auckland
2006
- 5th Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Gallery of Art, Queensland
- EX-OTICA, Gallery Vitamin, Turin
- Artissima Art Fair, Turin
- Grid <>Matrix, Kemper Art Museum, St Louis
- Lille 3000: Desi Pop, Lille
- 1st Singapore Biennale, Singapore
- Beyond the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia House, London; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
- Asian Contemporary Art Week, Asia Society, Gallery Korea, New York
- Flights of Fancy, Royaat Gallery, Lahore
- Mirror Worlds: (travelling exhibition), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Parallel Realities: 3rd Fukuoka Triennale, Blackburn Museum of Art, Blackburn
2005
- Identical Views, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai
- Bitmap: International Digital Photo Project, Loop, Incheon
- New Media Art from Pakistan, Artist Village, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Metrospective: Visual Representations of Metro-sexuality, Kitab Mahal, Mumbai
- Parallel Realities: 3rd Fukuoka Triennale, Fukuoka Museum of Art, Fukuoka
- Subhodh Gupta, Rashid Rana & L.N. Tallur, Bose Pacia, New York
- Mirror Worlds: Contemporary Video from Asia, Australian Center for Photography, Sydney
- Beyond Borders: Art from Pakistan, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
2004
- Identical Views, V.M. Gallery, Karachi
- Identical Views, Nature Morte, New Delhi
- South Asian Masters: Old Masters and Young Voices, Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore
- Art Summit IV, National Gallery of Art, Jakarta
- KOVIDEO: 1st Durban Video Festival, Kazna Gallery, Durban
- Playing with a Loaded Gun, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel
- Along the X Axis: Video Art from India and Pakistan, Apeejay Gallery, New Delhi10th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka
2003-4
- 9th Cairo International Biennale, Cairo
- Global Priority (travelling exhibition), San Francisco Arts Commission gallery, San Francisco
- Playing with a Loaded Gun, Apexart, New York
- Miniatures Pakistanises, Maison d’Art Contemporarian Chaillioux, Paris
2002
- Around Miniature, Royaat Gallery, Lahore
- Around Miniature, Canvas Gallery, Karachi
- Painting over the Lines: Five Contemporary Artists from Pakistan, York Quay Gallery, Toronto
- Painting over the Lines: Five Contemporary Artists from Pakistan, Indo Center for Art and Culture, New York
2001
- Non-Sense, Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad
- Crossing the Line (site-specific project at Jackson Heights), Queens Museum of Art, New York
2000
- Non-Sense, Zahoor ul Akhlaq Gallery, NCA, Lahore
- Context, Barefoot Gallery, Colombo
- Another Vision: 50 Years of Pakistani Art (travelling exhibition), The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London;
- Gallery Oldham; Haddonfield Art Gallery; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
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