Shubigi Rao

Shubigi Rao
Born1975 (1975) (age 49)
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
NationalitySingaporean
EducationBA English Lit (University of Delhi, 1996);

BFA (LASALLE College of the Arts, 2006);

MFA (LASALLE College of the Arts, 2008)
Known forInstallation art, video art, film, drawing, etching, writing, publishing
MovementContemporary art
Websitehttps://www.shubigi.com

Shubigi Rao (born 1975) is an Indian-born Singaporean contemporary artist and writer known for her long-term, multidisciplinary projects and installation works that often use books, etchings, drawings, video, and archives.[1][2] Her interests include archaeology, libraries, neuroscience, histories and lies, literature and violence, and natural history.[2] Rao has exhibited internationally, presenting work at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, 10th AsiaPacific Triennial in 2021, 10th Taipei Biennial in 2016, the 3rd Pune Biennale in 2017, the 2nd Singapore Biennale in 2008, as well as the 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018.[1]

In 2018, Rao received the Juror's Choice Award at the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize for her work, Written in the Margins (2014–2016), the first instalment of her ongoing 10-year project on the destruction of books and libraries, titled Pulp: A Short Biography of the Banished Book.[3] In 2024 Rao won the Singapore Literature Prize in Creative Nonfiction for her book, 'Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory of the Banished Book', after having previously won the same prize in 2020 for Pulp II: A Visual Bibliography of the Banished Book. The first volume from the Pulp project was also shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2018.[4]

Rao curated the fifth edition of South Asia's biggest visual arts event, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which was initially planned to take place from December 2020 to April 2021, before being postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19.[1][5][6][7] Alongside Kochi-Muziris Biennale founder and artist Bose Krishnamachari, Rao was featured on the 2019 and 2020 editions of the ArtReview Power 100 list, which charts the most influential individuals working in contemporary art.[8][9]

In 2022, Rao represented Singapore at the 59th Venice Biennale with the project Pulp III: A Short Biography of The Banished Book, with Ute Meta Bauer as curator for the artistic team.[10][11]

  1. ^ a b c Nanda, Akshita (10 May 2019). "Singapore artist Shubigi Rao to helm South Asia's largest visual art biennale in 2020". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b "About". Shubigi Rao. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  3. ^ Nanda, Akshita (21 May 2018). "Singaporean artist Shubigi Rao in running for $60,000 Signature Art Prize". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Singapore Literature Prize: Marylyn Tan is first woman to win for English poetry". The Straits Times. 27 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Shubigi Rao to Curate Fifth Kochi-Muziris Biennale". Artforum International. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  6. ^ "Artist Shubigi Rao to curate Kochi-Muziris Biennale". The Times of India. 10 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  7. ^ "5th Edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Postponed". Kochi Biennale Foundation. 28 October 2020. Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  8. ^ "Power 100: Most influential people in 2019 in the contemporary artworld: Bose Krishnamachari & Shubigi Rao". ArtReview. 2019. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Power 100: Most influential people in 2020 in the contemporary artworld: Bose Krishnamachari & Shubigi Rao". ArtReview. 2020. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  10. ^ "Multidisciplinary artist Shubigi Rao and curator Ute Meta Bauer to represent Singapore at the 59th International Venice Biennale". e-flux. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  11. ^ Toh, Wen Li (20 April 2022). "Artist Shubigi Rao's Pulp to take centre stage at Venice Biennale's Singapore pavilion". The Straits Times. Retrieved 14 June 2022.