MANJARI SHARMA
PREVIOUS LECTURE SERIES
Talking Photography: Conversations with Artists (Fall 2021)
(Guest Speaker)
Manjari Sharma makes work that is rooted in portraiture, addressing the issues of race, memory, identity, multiculturalism, and personal mythology. Manjari was born in 1979 and raised in Mumbai, India. After completing an undergraduate program in Still photography and audio production, she moved to the United States to pursue a second Bachelor's program in Fine Art at Columbus College of Art and Design. After moving to New York City, she gained notoriety for her first long-term project titled "The Shower Series." With this series, Manjari began her journey of making work that was just as much about the materiality of water as it was about the inner landscape of the human mind. Works from 'The Shower Series' were invited, published, and exhibited on numerous blogs and traveled to galleries and festivals worldwide. A decade later, expanding her art practice Manjari continues to explore similar themes incorporating sound, motion, and projection, in her new series titled "Surface Tension."
Manjari's project 'Darshan,' a photographic re-imagining of Hindu deities, garnered her wide critical acclaim. Her works were recognized by The New York Times, Vice Magazine, CNN, LA Times, The Huffington Post, and NPR, to name a few. 'Darshan' was also recently published as a "One book series" limited edition book with Nazaraeli Press. In 2017 the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned Manjari to create a collaborative series favorably reviewed in the New York Times by acclaimed Art critic Roberta Smith. "To see your face" has since continued to travel to multiple galleries and museums, including the Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark and Kunsthalle Mannheim in Germany (Fall 2021).
Apart from making art, Manjari is passionate about teaching and diverse community building. Manjari has guest lectured and critiqued at institutions such as The School of M.F.A, Boston, The Rubin Museum of Art, AsiaSociety, Emory University, Carlos Museum, The School of Visual Arts, and Maine Media Workshops (fall 2021). Manjari's work is in the permanent collection of The MET, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Carlos Museum, and Birmingham Museum of Art, amongst various private collections. Manjari has recently transplanted to Southern California from Brooklyn, NY, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles with her husband, two daughters, and their beloved Goldendoodle.
