Ranbir Kaleka
Ranbir Kaleka (born 1953) is a contemporary Indian multi-media artist based in New Delhi whose work often centers around themes of animals, sexuality and tradition. Initially trained as a painter, his work has increasingly animated two-dimensional canvases within experimental film narrative sequences, and has been exhibited in a range of major international gallery and museum venues. In 2007, Dr.
Ranbir Kaleka
George Quasha · CC BY 3.0
- Name
- Ranbir Kaleka
- Born
- 7 April 1953
- Birthplace
- Patiala, Punjab, India
- Field
- * Painting
- Education
- * Government College of Art, Chandigarh
- Movement
- Surrealism
- Awards
- National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi (1979)
- Occupation
- multimedia artist · painter · video artist
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wikidata · Q30323718 · wikipedia · Ranbir Kaleka
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Getty Union List of Artist Names
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Biography
Biography
Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Senior Judaica curator, Spertus Museum Chicago commissioned Ranbir Kaleka to make a Holocaust memorial. The site-specific video installation is titled "Consider", a title inspired by the poem of the same name by Primo Levi, and arrived at in consultation with Heimann-Jelinek. The installation consists of two projections, a painting and an audio narrative of oral testimony from Auschwitz. In 2002 Ranbir Kaleka exhibited at the Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria in the exhibition Kapital and Karma: Recent Positions in Indian Art. Awarded the National Award by the President of India at the 22nd National Exhibition of Art organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1979 in Delhi. In 2005 Kaleka showed at the 51st Venice Biennale in the exhibition ‘iCon - India Contemporary’ Co-curated by Julie Evans, Gordon Knox and Peter Nagy. In 2019 he was honored with Punjab Gaurav Sanmaan by Punjab Arts Council and Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Ranbir Kaleka • Born — 7 April 1953 • Birthplace — Patiala, Punjab, India • Citizenship — Indian • Field — * Painting • Video art • Multi-media art • Education — * Government College of Art, Chandigarh • Royal College of Art • Movement — Surrealism • Awards — National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi (1979)
Documentary record
Ranbir Kaleka, a painter and video artist, was born in 1953 in Patiāla. The birth is recorded by the Getty Union List of Artist Names.
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Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Ranbir Kaleka, revision 1369095857 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Oberhollenzer, Gunther. Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art. 2009.
- 2.Sambrani, Chaitanya. Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India. Palgrave Macmillan. 127–129. 2005.
- 3.Cotter, Holland. Art in Review; Ranbir Kaleka. New York Times. 21 October 2005.
- 4.Malhotra, Priya. Ranbir Kaleka at Bose Pacia. Asian Art News. 157. May–June 2008.
- 5.Roy, Tania. History of the "Mise en Abyme of the Body": Ranbir Kaleka and the "Art of Auschwitz" after Virilio in Virilio and Visual Culture. Edinburg University Press. 102–127. 2013.
- 6.Cohen. Visualizing and Exhibiting Jewish Space and History. Oxford University Press. 231. 2012.
- 7.Kaplan, Brett Ashley. Landscapes of Holocaust Postmemory. Routledge. 141. 2010.
- 8.Cohen, Sharon. The Arts: A Museum of Great Reflection. 2 April 2008.
- 9.Kapital & Karma Art since 1945 Hatje Cantz. www.hatjecantz.de. August 2025.
- 10.Nath, Aman. I am not a surrealist painter: Ranbir Singh Kaleka. India Today. 10 January 2014.
- 11.Archive, Asia Art. iCon: India Contemporary. aaa.org.hk.
- 12.Commemorazione dei defunti e dei Caduti di tutte le guerre e Festa dell'Unità nazionale: il programma delle iniziative. www.comune.venezia.it.
- 13.A Moment in Time. The Indian Express. 2019-03-03.
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