Born in 1956 in Suryapet, Andhra Pradesh, Ravinder Reddy completed a bachelor’s of fine arts in sculpture and a master’s of arts in creative sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, among other short diploma courses. Reddy currently teaches at the Department of Fine Art, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.
Ravinder Reddy, the master sculptor, has a distinguished style that establishes him as a celebrity Indian Artist. Ravinder Reddy's sculpture is heraldic. Many of his sculptures are larger than life heads. Invariably, they look frontally through wide-open eyes, the characteristic attitude of one who proclaims. None of the sculptures looks sideways, or over the shoulder. The one who predicts may draw material from the past, but he has only the future to address. And the message, or prediction, that is about to be announced can be read from sculpture to sculpture in the gold emblazoning, or the searing red which covers the head, or in the complex hair-dos on the female heads, all of which are emblematic designs.
Most of his prominent sculptures depict spectacular eyes. The admirers get a unique presentation of wide and bold eyes in most of his popular exhibits. A sense of familiarity is yet another distinctive feature of the artist’s creations. The viewers can easily relate to the sculptors as they find them very familiar to them. Instead of using mythical images, the artist depicts images of common men and women in his works. Certainly, this idea brings him a different identity.
Besides the fusion of contemporary pop art and Hindu sculptural tradition, Reddy provides a union of the archetype and the individual and like Cotter has noted, it feels more like “folk” art than “fine” art.
Sculpture is a welling upward of a world of images from the flat and even surface in which they were earlier concealed. The sculptor merely unveils them, or so it would seem. This sense of apparent effortlessness goes hand in hand with the emotional and structural informality of Reddy's latest works.
He was one of the first contemporary Indian artists to draw critical attention in America following his show at Deitch Projects in 2001. New York Times Art Critic Holland Cotter said in a review of Reddy’s first solo show in New York, “The spirelike roofs of certain Hindu temples in South India are a dizzying pileup of hundreds of brightly painted carved figures. Most are of deities, but the ever-changing mix can also include politicians, movie idols and even an occasional Westerner of local renown. This blending of religion and pop culture is a constant in Indian art, and it is the impetus behind the work of Ravinder G. Reddy. His painted and gilded fiberglass sculptures of women have been among of the most visible examples of contemporary South Asian art since they first made a splash in ‘Traditions/Tensions’ at the Asia Society in 1996.”
He appears in collections such as that of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, USA; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Frank Cohen Collection, UK; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA; and the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; in addition to attracting attention at various international contemporary art auctions.
Academics
British Council Scholarship, Royal College of Art, London in 1984.
Diploma (Art and Design), Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1983.
M.F.A. in Creative Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda in 1982.
B.F.A. (Sculpture), M.S. University, Baroda in 1980.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Grosvenor Vadehra, London in 2008.
Incredible India, Le Jardin d'Acclimation, Paris, France in 2007.
Sculptures, Walsh Gallery,Chicago
Monumental Sculptures, Media Gallery, Apeejay Techno Park, New Delhi in 2003.
Popular Cultures, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, USA.
Monumental Sculptures, Deitch Projects, New York.
Laskhmi Devi, Sackler Gallery, Washington DC.
Devi, Sackler Gallery,Washington DC,USA.
Sculpture,Art Today Gallery,New Delhi in 1997.
Group Exhibitions
"The Sensation of Gestures - IAF Parallel", Gallery Dotwalk, Gurgaon in 2023.
"What's in a Face?", Gallery Dotwalk, Gurgaon in 2022.
"An Unlocated Window of Myself", Gallery Dotwalk, Gurgaon in 2022.
Body Chatter : An Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art, Walsh Gallery, Chicago in 2009.
Freedom 2008 : Sixty Years After Indian Independence, Centre for International Modern Art(CIMA), Kolkata.
India Art Now : Between Continuity and Transformation, Province of Milan, Milan, Italy in 2007-08.
Indian Art at Swarovski Crystal World Show, 2nd Exhibition, Tirol–Österreich, Austria.
Polyphonies, Gallery Hosp, Tirol–Österreich, Austria.
20th Century Sculpture : from Archipenko to Reddy, Grosvenor Gallery, London in association with Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi in 2007.
Indian Art III, HERE AND NOW, Young Voices from India, Grosvenor Gallery, London in association with Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.
Private/Corporate IV, A Dialogue of the collection Lekha and Anupam Poddar, New Delhi and Daimler Chrysler, Stuttgart/Berlin, Daimler Ghrysler Contemporary Potsdamer Platz Berlin.
Post Object, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
2006 New Space, Art Space 1X1, Dubai.
The Third Eye, Lille, France.
Art on the Beach-Made by Indians, St.Tropez, arranged by Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris.
The Garden Party, Deitch Projects, New York.
Endless Terrain, presented by Interiors Espania at Lalit Kala Galleries, Rabindra Bhawan, New Delhi in 2005.
Body Perfect, Walsh Gallery, Chicago.
About Beauty, House of World Cultures, Berlin.
Transit 3, Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, Presented by Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai.
Are we like this only?, Vadehra Art Gallery at Lalit Kala Galleries, New Delhi.
Iconography in Transient Times, Visual Arts Gallery,New Delhi, presented by Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore in 2004.
The Androgyne, organized by Apparao Galleries, Chennai, Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi.
Margi & Desi Exhibition, Lalit Kala Galleries, Delhi, conducted by Espace Gallery, New Delhi.
Sacred Space, organized by RPG Enterprise, Mumbai at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.
New Paradigms-II, organized by Threshold Gallery at Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi.
2003 Enchanting the Icon, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore.
Roots En Route, Queens Gallery, British Council, New Delhi.
Travelling show, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai.
2002 Sidewinder, CIMA Gallery, Kolkata.
Human Park, An exhibition of Global Creatures, La Virreinna Exposicions, Institute de Cultura, Barcelona.
India: Contemporary Art from North Eastern Private Collections, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, USA.
Sheen of Metal, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi.
New Paradigms, conducted by Threshold Gallery at Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi.
Creative Space, Sakshi Gallery Anniversary Show, Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi.
