Rashid Rana

Rashid Rana is a contemporary artist from Pakistan known for his diverse artistic expressions spanning painting, installation, photography, and collage. 

Biography of Rashid Rana

Rashid Rana was born in 1968 in Lahore, Pakistan. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan in 1992, followed by a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1994.

Rana holds the position of founding faculty member and head of the Fine Art department at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan.

His recent exhibitions include "Scatter in Time" at Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai, "Rashid Rana" at Lisson Gallery in Milan, "Labyrinth of Reflections" at Mohatta Palace Museum in Karachi, "Everything Is Happening at Once" at New Art Exchange in Nottingham, "Apposite-Opposite" at Chemould Prescott Road/Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai.

Rashid Rana's artworks have been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including "Sanctuary" at FOR-SITE Foundation in San Francisco (2017), "Art from Elsewhere: International Contemporary Art from UK Galleries" at Arnolfini in Bristol (2016), "Small Worlds" at The New Art Gallery Walsall in Walsall (2015), among others.

Additionally, his works are included in prestigious collections including the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, and the National Gallery of Art in Islamabad, among other notable institutions.

Rashid Rana's Art Style

In his photography, sculpture, and digital printmaking, Rana employs manipulation, repetition, and rearrangement to transpose imagery from one time and location to another.

Among his most celebrated pieces are "Veil I," "Veil II," and "Veil III" (2004). In this series, Rana utilizes photographs depicting pornographic acts to construct the image of an anonymous woman veiled in a burqa. This artwork highlights the significant cultural gap between Eastern and Western societies, shedding light on the stereotypes that reinforce these disparities.  

His telescoping of politics, civilizations, and time also manifests in three dimensions, as seen in works from the series "Desperately Seeking Paradise" (2007-2011). These pieces intertwine Lahore's modest streets and houses with the architectural allure of skyscrapers and the sleek lines of Minimalism.