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Chitra Ramanathan
Profile/CV
Chitra Ramanathan - Contemporary visual artist - Biography From Chitra Ramanathan's official website and partial biography from askArt.com
Unique features:
* Extensive body of paintings portraying happiness as a visual entity with a "formless form", created through intense colors and varieties of found texture materials
* The artist's unique style of mixed-media paintings on surfaces including on and behind Plexiglas and anodized aluminum
* Large-scale paintings colorful paintings
Chitra Ramanathan's body of mixed-media paintings are characterized by intense colours and multiple layers of textures that interact with light to "challenge the boundaries of their two-dimensional surfaces", inspired by short-lived garden blooms and cyclical seasons both of which the artist compares with the continually evolving, ephemeral, fleeting happiness' "formless form": a phrase she has coined to describe her concept.
Hints of circles signify the human life-cycle, trying times followed by happy phases and of life and rebirth influenced by her roots from India. Her paintings on varied surfaces have been described as "tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony" by Manhattan Arts International magazine, New York. Her work has attracted visiting artist lectures to institutions within the U.S and abroad, including a 2005 invitation from Professor Dr. Maurice Cockrill to the Royal Academy of Arts/RA Schools London for a visual presentation of her body of work and conducting student tutorials at the Royal Academy Schools.
Chitra earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting with Honours in 1993 from the College of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, during which period she also allotted time to study Painting and Art History in Paris, France, with extended time spent at Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France and other parts of Europe that influenced her later work. She completed a M.B.A from the same university in 1997.
She is a current Painting Faculty of the Indianapolis Art Center, USA who has taught courses and workshops in Drawing, Acrylics, and Mixed-media Painting, while accepting freelance invitational visiting artist lectures, adjunct professor positions, artist residencies, collaborative team projects, exhibition jury requests, site-specific public art commissions, freelance assignments, and invitations to teach painting holiday courses and workshops from educational institutions within the U.S and Europe.
Media:
Indianapolis U.S.A Fun City Finder "Chitra Ramanathan: Freelance Indianapolis artist and art educator" by : Arts, People February 17, 2010
Chitra Ramanathan recently returned from a self-directed residency in France, refreshing a pre-existing relationship with that region that was inspirational to her creating a by now known body of work. The painter, art educator and muralist completed a residency at the Camac Centre D'Art at Marnay sur Seine, France in April 2010 upon an invitation and grant offered by Artistay. During her month-long stay in France, she developed a series of plein air conceptual landscapes on wood panels and canvases using them as inspiration for large-scale versions in her studio in the United States. Says Chitra, "working again in France was an experience that brought memories of my extended visit to Paris and Monet's garden at Giverny in 1992. Little did I realize that it would inspire a large body of work on the theme of gardens based on which I compared the emotion of happiness to the fleeting and cyclical characteristics of ephemeral garden blooms. Here I was in 2010, visiting Giverny and exploring the French countryside, with a similar opportunity to create a variety of conceptual landscapes both en plein air and through the windows of my artist studio at Marnay". Chitra Ramanathan’s predominately large-scale body of mixed-media paintings are characterized by intense colors and multiple layers of textures that interact with light to "challenge the boundaries of their two-dimensional surfaces". Her uniquely textured, intensely colourful paintings are inspired by short-lived garden blooms and cyclical seasons both of which the artist compares with the continually evolving, ephemeral, fleeting happiness with its "formless form', a phrase coined to describe her concept. Hints of circles signify the human life-cycle, trying times followed by happy phases and of life and rebirth influenced by her roots in India. Her paintings on varied surfaces have been described as "tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony" by Manhattan Arts International magazine. - Arts News, Arts Council England, July 5, 2010 For Indianapolis artist Chitra Ramanathan, happiness is a "universally encompassing entity possessing form on a mental level" yet indescribable in terms of physical characteristics."You can never really capture it", you can only express it." "- "Creative Pursuit of Happiness: Paintings Give Form to the Ephemeral", section: Women in Business. Interview by Della Pacheco, the Indianapolis Business Journal, April 9, 2007
"Says a recent collector, an art connoisseur and former staffer of the Indianapolis Museum of Art:"Chitra is a wonderful teacher who helps each individual student. As an artist, she is inspiring. Her work is in great collections, including the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I proudly own one of her works. Anyone would be proud to add one of her works to a collection." Service Category: Artist/ Teacher Year first hired: 2004 (hired more than once)Top Qualities: Expert, High Integrity, Creative"--Alice Irvan, President, AirVanConsulting LLC, Indianapolis. Source: LinkedIn
"E/Motions" Group exhibition at Agora Gallery, Broadyway, New York: Chitra Ramanathan employs paint, anodized aluminum, and Plexiglas to create tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony.
Originally from India, her work reflects that spiritual culture". -Reviews & Previews by Gordon Dane for Manhattan Arts International magazine, New York, Fall 1995
"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". Interview with Chitra Ramanathan, University of Illinois School of Art and Design Alumni Foundation 2005
"Chitra's artwork invokes emotions through her layering of color and texture"- Karla Becker, Indianapolis. Co-author of textbook, "Composing Technical Documents", previously used at Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis.
Website www.chitraramanathan.com
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