Associate Professor Chaitanya Sambrani
Areas of expertise
- Art History 190102
- Asian History 210302
- Art Theory And Criticism 1901
- Postcolonial Studies 200211
- Curatorial And Related Studies 2102
Research interests
Modern and Contemporary Art in Asia
Art and nationhood; art practice and belonging
Transnational and cosmopolitan histories of art
Contemporary art's relationships with traditional practice
Art, architecture and urbanity
Biography
Chaitanya Sambrani is an art historian and curator interested in and modern and contemporary art in Asia, especially in relation to tradition, marginality and politics. Chaitanya teaches courses on modernism and contemporary art in India, Indonesia, China and Japan, and on art, design and urbanity. His major curatorial projects include Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India (shown at museums in Australia, USA, Mexico and India over 2004-07); Place.Time.Play: Contemporary Art from the West Heavens to the Middle Kingdom (the first contemporary art exchange between artists from China and India, Shanghai, 2010); To Let the World In: narrative and beyond in contemporary Indian art (Art Chennai Festival of Art, 2012) and All that Arises, a mid-career survey of the work of Lao-Australian artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn (Canberra, 2019). He is principal author and editor of At Home in the World: the Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh (2019), and is currently working on a monograph on the Riding Rocinante project of Tushar Joag (1966-2018) addressing water rights and futures across India and China. He leads the interdisciplinary digital project The "Wonders" that Basham Saw, analysing the visual archives of Professor A.L. Basham, in collaboration with colleagues at ANU, University of Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, National University of Singapore and the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
As Convenor of Higher Degrees by Research, Chaitanya oversees the MPhil and PhD program at the School of Art and Design. He is also the Convenor of the research hub Asia: Innovation and Transformation at the School. A member of the Board of the ANU's South Asia Research Institute (SARI), he served as the Instutites's Deputy Director in 2018-19. In 2019, he was nominated Honorary Professor at the Fakultas Seni Rupa dan Desain (Faculty of Visual Art and Design) at the Institut Teknologi Bandung, and in 2022 was awarded 'Ganesa Widya Jasa Utama' by that institution. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and Curatorial Adviser to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and to the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Chaitanya co-founded the Australasian Network for Asian Art (an4aa.org), and is a member of the Network's inaugural Coordinating Group (2020-2023). He serves on the Committee of Management of The Asian Art Society of Australia (TAASA).
Researcher's projects
2020-2022: Curatorial Advisor for the exhibitions Elemental and Correspondence; Asian galleries, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2020-2022: Riding Rocinante: Tushar Joag's Ride to Realisation (monograph, SSAF-Tulika Books, New Delhi)
2019-2023: Ways of Belonging: Art, nation and world in India and Indonesia (monograph, TBC)
2018-2023: The "Wonders" that Basham Saw: digitising and analysing the visual archive of Professor A.L. Basham (in collaboration with ANU Archives, National Gallery of Australia, Oxford University and National University of Singapore)
2017-19: All that Arises, 25-year survey exhibition of the work of Lao-Australian artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU
2012-18: At Home in the World: the Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh (New Delhi: Tulika Books in association with Vadehra Art Gallery, 2019).
2012-13: Curatorial Adviser, Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne.
2011-13: Screenwriter, To Let the World In, vols. 1 and 2. Documentary film on contemporary art, dir. Avijit Mukul Kishore.
2011-12: Curator, To Let the World In: Narrative and Beyond in Contemporary Indian Art, Art Chennai festival of contemporary art.
2009-10: Curator, Place.Time.Play: Contemporary Art from the West Heavens to the Middle Kingdom (exhibition of contemporary art from India and China), West Heavens, Shanghai.
2004-07: Curator, Edge of Desire: Recent art in India. Co-organised by Asia Society Museum, New York and Art Gallery of Western Australia. Exhibition tour: Perth, New York, Monterrey, Mexico City, Berkeley, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Available student projects
Chaitanya welcomes discussion on prospective student projects addressing modern and contemporary art practice in Asia.
Current student projects
PhD
Gillian Daniel (Art History and Curatorship) "Topographic Imaginaries: Envisioning the Natural World in the Straits Settlements" (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Si Ming Pang (Art History and Curatorship) "Identity and Belonging in Nanyang Art" (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Nasibeh Ghasri Khouzani (Art History and Ceramics), Iranian expatriate artists and questions of self-censorship (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Soo-Min Shim (Art History and Curatorship) "Borders and Belonging: New visions of relationality and community by contemporary Korean artists in Australia and New Zealand" (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Lucie Folan (Art History and Curatorship), "Manifestations of Merit: tracing the history, creation and meaning of Jain sacred-site images (tirtha pata)" (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Shanti Shea-An (Painting), “Reading/Painting: A Practice-led Inquiry into Textuality, Legibility, and Translation in Contemporary Painting” (Associate Supervisor)
Lucy Irvine (Sculpture and Spatial Practice), "Emergent Knowledge Practices: Interweaving new spatial, material and relational strategies for pedadogical and interdisciplinary research" (Chair of Panel)
Janet Turpie-Johnstone (Printmedia/painting), "Bunjil Patterns" the mess of the past and future in Country now" (Associate Supervisor)
Jeremy Lepisto (Sculpture and Spatial Practice),"Containers of Consequence: The shipping container and its unintended deliveries" (Chair and Primary Supervisor)
Past student projects
PhD:
Bec Bigg-Wither (Photomedia, 2023), "Air to Ground: Apollo 11's Fiftieth Anniversary"
Francis Kenna (Art Theory and Printmedia, 2021), "Feeling Spaces: grounding the body through architectural atmosphere".
Stephanie Alexandria Parker (Photomedia, 2021), "The Role of Rhythmical Pattern Body Movement in ANZAC Commemoration and Site Connotations".
Phil Page (Painting, 2018) 'The Form and Content of European Cities as Paintings'.
Brian Corr (Sculpture, 2018) "Contemplative Space in Japanese Architecture"
Safrizal Shahir (Printmedia, 2017), "Gravestones as mirror: a visual discourse on Batu Aceh"
Fiona Peng Qian (Ceramics, 2016) "A Site for Hybrid Practice: Between Traditional Culture and Contemporary Ceramic Art"
Ian Jones (Art Theory and Ceramics, 2016), "Wabi-cha and the Perception of Beauty in Japanese Ceramics"
Tim Thomas (Photomedia, 2014) "The Articulation and Rearticulation of Space in the Photographic Paradigm"
Ursula Frederick (Art Theory and Photomedia, 2014), Aesthetics of Car Cultures in Australia and USA
Christina Clarke (Art Theory and Gold and Silver, 2012) "The manufacture of Minoan vessels: theory and practice"
Robert Guth (Photomedia, 2012) "Engaging audiences to value and invest in participatory art practice through reciprocal and relational interactions"
Nicola Dickson (Painting, 2010) "Wonderlust: the influence of natural history illustration and ornamentation on perceptions of the exotic in Australia"
Johanna Hoyne (Sculpture, 2009) "Commitment, Devotion and Belonging in the World with particular reference to the work of two Indian contemporary artists"
M.Phil.:
Heather Burness (Printmedia)
M.A. (Advanced):
Jing Zhang, "Postsocialist Urban Aesthetics in the Pearl River Delta Region 1980s and 1990s", 2020.
Su Yilmaz, "Reclamations of Power and Space Through the Abject: Franko B and Rashid Rana" 2019.
Bianca Hill, "Woman as Visual Fiction: national identity in post-independence Myanmar" 2017. Awarded University Medal.
Chiei Ishida: "Chinese and Taiwanese Performance art of the 1980s", 2014.
Haolan Liang: "Two Traditions Engage: Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Painting of Zhao Xiaoping", 2014.
Honours:
Seren Heyman-Griffiths, "The world as we make it: Material culture, geopolitics and constructions of Asia at the National Gallery of Australia", 2021.
Anna Stewart-Yates, "'Modernist Japanese-ness: A Geneaology of Intercultural Design Exchange, 2021
Chelsie Baldwin, "The Ideology of Power: Appropriation of Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit Icoonography in Indonesia", 2021
Jamie Alexander, "Redo/ubling Materialist Feminism, Rethinking Southeast Asian Contemporary Art History", 2020.
Caitlin Hughes, "Dismantling the Map: Narrative, intervention and the play-response in the art of Tintin Wulia, Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett", 2020. Awarded Janet Wilkie Prize for Art History.
Hannah Tyler, "Eyes and Cities: Kaldor Public Art Projects and the Urban Landscapes of Sydney and Melbourne" (2019)
Bianca Winataputri, "Generasi Dilema: Consciousness of the Global South in the Work of Eko Nugroho and Jompet Kuswidananto" (2017). Awarded Janet Wilkie Prize for Art History.
Janis Lejins "The Art of Connection: rethinking art in a networked world" (2016)
Nagesh Seethiah "Visualising otherness in Contemporary Australian Art" (2016)
Ellen Wignell "Producing Ai Weiwei: Life, Politics and Art (2014)
Lucy Caldwell Appropriation and globalisation in the work of migrant artists in Australia (2014)
Miriam Kelly Race, gender and globalisation in the work of Mella Jaarsma and Sharmila Samant (2008) Awarded University Medal
Publications
- Sambrani, C 2022, ''Dialogue and Resonance: The Construction of Hyperreal Icons in Pushpamala N.'s Photo-performances'', in Monica Juneja and Sumathi Ramaswamy (ed.), Motherland: Pushpamala N.'s Woman and Nation, Roli Books, India, New Delhi, pp. 19-30.
- Sambrani, C & Landrus, M 2022, 'Portraits Beyond Space and Time,' Ali Kazim: Suspended in Time. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum
- Sambrani, C 2020, 'Art, Nation and World: Reflections on Teaching Indonesian Art in South-Eastern Australia', Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 181-186.
- Sambrani, C 2020, ''The Ramayana in Indian Painting: Princely Adventures and Other Stories'', TAASA Review: Journal of the Asian Art Society of Australia, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 4-6.
- Sambrani, C 2020, 'Excavating Obsolescence: The Art of Tallur L.N.', in (ed.), Interference Fringe: Tallur L.N., Grounds For Sculpture, United States, pp. 49-60.
- Sambrani, C 2020, 'A Playground At the Earth's Middle', Art Monthly Australia (AMA), vol. 321, pp. 50-51.
- Sambrani, C 2019, Curator, 'Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: All that arises'. 25-year survey exhibition of the Lao/Australian artist's work. ANU Drill Hall Gallery, 16 August-13 October 2019.
- Sambrani, C 2019, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: All That Arises, ANU Drill Hall Gallery Publishing, Canberra, Australia.
- Sambrani, C 2019, 'Affandi (1907-1990)'. Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.
- Sambrani, C 2019, "Archipelagic Cosmopolitanism: A Prehistory of Contemporary Art in Indonesia," in Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
- Sambrani, C 2019, "Shilpa Gupta: Poetry at the Borderlines," in Victoria Lynn, ed., The Tangible Trace, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, VIC
- Sambrani, C, with contributions by Kupfer, M, Parsons, C, & Zitzewitz, K, 2019, At Home in the World: the Art and Life of Gulammohammed Sheikh, Tulika Books in Association with Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.
- Sambrani, C 2019, A conscience in pursuit of an elusive revolution, Art India, Vol XXII, Issue IV, January 2019, pp. 100-103.
- Sambrani, C 2018, "The Basham Project At The Australian National University" TAASA Review, Vol. 24, Issue 4, December 2018.
- Sambrani, C 2017, A home in the clouds (with mother, father and other beings), Art India, Vol XXI Issue II, pp. 78-79.
- Sambrani, C 2017, 'Husain's Raj: Visions of Empire and Nation, by Sumathi Ramaswamy', South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 912-913.
- Sambrani, C 2016, entries on Indonesian modernism: 'PERSAGI (Persatuan Ahli-Ahli Gambar Indonesia)', 'Affandi' and 'Hendra Gunawan' in Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism (www.rem.routledge.com)
- Sambrani, C 2016, Embassies of resistance: the 20th Biennale of Sydney, Art Monthly Australasia, Issue 290, June-July 2016, pp. 60-62.
- Sambrani, C 2015, 'Of Bones and Salt: Jitish Kallat's Public Notice 2', in (ed.), Jitish Kallat: Public Notice 2., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
- Sambrani, C 2015, 'The Medeaprojekt and Beyond',in (ed.), Nalini Malani: You Can't Keep Acid in a Paper Bag 1969-2014, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India, p. 5.
- Sambrani, C 2015, 'Art in Baroda: Provincial Location, Cosmopolitan Aspiration', in Priya Maholay-Jaradi (ed.), Baroda: A Cosmopolitan Provenance in Transition, Marg, Mumbai, India, pp. 120-131.
- Sambrani, C 2014, 'An Experiment in Connectivity: From the 'West Heavens' to the 'Middle Kingdom', in Michelle Antoinette and Caroline Turner (ed.), Contemporary Asian Art and Exhibitions: Connectivities and World-making, ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 89-108.
- Sambrani, C 2013, To Let the World In: Volumes 1 and 2. Screenwriter (curatorial concept and conversations with artists) for two part documentary (HD video, Vol 1: 93 min and Vol 2: 52 min) directed by Avijit Mukul Kishore, produced by Art Chennai.
- Sambrani, C 2013, 'Staking Out the Globe: India Art Now', Artlink, vol. 33, no. 1 (special issue: This Asian Century, edited by Alison Carroll), pp. 18-22.
- Elliot, D, Jamieson, A, King, N, Sambrani, C et al 2013, "E-conversation with Jitish Kallat" in King and Starr, eds., Jitish Kallat: Circa. Melbourne: Asialink, University of Melbourne, 2013.
- Sambrani, C 2012, 'To Let the World In: Narrative and Beyond in Contemporary Indian Art'. Major exhibition with work from 30 contemporary artists, Lalit Kala Akademi (State Academy of Fine Art), Chennai, India, as part of the Art Chennai festival, 15 March-10 April 2012.
- Sambrani C 2012, Place.Time.Play: Contemporary Art from the West Heavens to the Middle Kingdom, Hong Kong: Hanart TZ Gallery and the West Heavens Project, 2012.
- Sambrani, C 2011, 'Home and Away:Highways and Byways in Asian Art', in Melissa Chiu and Benjamin Genocchio (ed.), Contemporary Art in Asia, The MIT Press, United States, pp. 163-178pp.
- Sambrani, C 2011, 'Place.Time.Play: Contemporary art from the west heavens to the middle kingdom', TAASA Review: Journal of the Asian Art Society of Australia, vol. 20, no. 04, pp. 31-33pp.
- Sambrani, C 2011, J. Swaminathan and Group 1890.
- Sambrani C 2011, “Highways and Bylanes in Contemporary Asian Art” in Chiu and Genocchio, eds., Contemporary Art in Asia: A Critical Reader, Cambridge, MA,.: MIT Press, 2011.
- Sambrani, C 2010, 'Place.Time.Play: Contemporary art from the West Heavens to the Middle Kingdom'.
- Sambrani, C 2010, 'Phaptawan Suwannakudt', in Fuyubi Nakamura (ed.), Ephemeral but Eternal Words: Traces of Asia: Chihiro Minato, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Tsubasa Kimura, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, pp. 24-30.
- Sambrani, C 2010, 'Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: Words across Worlds', in Fuyubi Nakamura (ed.), Ephemeral but Eternal Words: Traces of Asia: Chihiro Minato, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Tsubasa Kimura, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, pp. 18-21.
- Sambrani, C 2009, 'International Vernaculars and Throwaway Epiphanies: The Recent Work of Tallur L.N', in Rajaram Tallur and Nicole J. Caruth (ed.), Placebo: Tallur L.N., Arario Gallery and Chemould Prescott Road, New York, USA and Mumbai, India, pp. 6-14.
- Sambrani, C 2008, 'For Here or to Go? The Production of Spectacle for a Global Art World', Have You Eaten Yet? the 2007 Asian Art Biennial, ed. Conference Program Committee, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, pp. 20-51.
- Sambrani, C 2008, Trash: Vivan Sundaram, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.
- Sambrani, C 2008, 'Contemporary Art and the Global Market: the Case of India', Art and Capital: Spiritual Odyessey, ed. Jinsuk Suh and Suhyun Kim, Alternative Space LOOP, Korea, pp. 60-67.
- Sambrani, C 2007, 'Shadows, Reflections and Nightmare: the art of Nalini Malani', in Sean Kissane and Johan Pjnappol (ed.), Nalini Malani, Edizioni Charta, Milano, pp. 23-38.
- Sambrani, C 2006, 'Ways of Belonging: post-national art in India', in Gab, Yun Chea (ed.), Hungry God: Indian Contemporary Art, Arario Beijing, Beijing, pp. 32-41.
- Sambrani, C, ed., 2005, Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, Philip Wilson Publishers, London.
- Sambrani, C 2005, 'Catalogue of the exhibition: Location, Transient Self, Contested terrain, Recycled futures, Unruly visions', in Chaitanya Sambrani (ed.), Edge of Desire: Recent art in India, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, pp. 40-155.
- Sambrani, C 2005, 'On the double edge of desire', in Chaitanya Sambrani (ed.), Edge of Desire: Recent art in India, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, pp. 12-33.
- Sambrani, C 2005, 'Edge of Desire'.
- Sambrani, C 2003, 'The progressive artists' group', in Gayatri Sinha (ed.), Indian Art: An overview, Rupa & Co, New Dehli India, p. 238.
- Sambrani, C 2002, 'Austerity-Excess-Invention: the Asia-Pacific Triennial 2002', Art Monthly Australia, vol. nov 2003, pp. 29-33.
- Sambrani, C 2002, 'Here, out there (and somewhere in between): contemporary art in India', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 55-76.
- Sambrani, C 2002, 'Home and Away: contemporary Indian art in the international arena', Art Monthly Australia (AMA), vol. Sept 2002, pp. 7-11.
- Sambrani, C 2001, 'Book Review: When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India', ART AsiaPacific, vol. 30, p. 96.
- Sambrani, C 2001, 'Process Notes: The Open Circle Experiment', Lalit Kala Contemporary, vol. 44, pp. 35-40.
- Sambrani, C 2000, 'The possibilities of device: the work of Nalini Malani and Nilima Sheikh', in Huangfu, Binghi (ed.), Text and Subtext: Contemporary Art and Asian Woman, Earl Lu Gallery/Lasalle-Sia College of the Arts, Singapore, pp. 127-138.
