Statement
Rujuta Rao’s practice spans sculpture, installation, book art, beverage, and social practice, alongside conceptual and functional garments through her gender expansive clothing line RUGA. Research-driven and personal, her work uses material investigation to explore migration, place, family history, and hospitality. Rao is curious about how artworks and publications can transform into spaces for gathering, creating conditions for connection and dialogue between the artist and audience. Drawing from her training as a bartender and Japanese sake adviser, she stages relational encounters mediated by a menu of artist books and beverages, shared across the bar counter, conceived as both boundary and interface. She considers conditional, unconditional, parasitic, and mutualistic guest–host relations as frameworks for approaching borders and migration. Her portable, modular architectures explore how hospitality might render boundaries porous.
Bio
Rujuta Rao (b. Goa, India) received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Parsons School of Design, New York, and her BFA in Sculpture from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She is a certified Japanese Sake Adviser through the Sake Service Institute International, Tokyo, and a sake sommelier candidate. Rao has participated in residencies and fellowships at Bemis Center (NE); SOMA Summer (MX); Center for Book Arts (NY); The Here & There Co. (NY); CCA Islands Travel Fellowship (JP); and the Civita Institute Fellowship (IT). Rao's work has been exhibited at the State of Fashion Biennale 2024 (NL), The Kitchen (NY), the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 (NY), Printed Matter / St. Marks (NY), New York Live Arts (NY), Ulterior Gallery (NY), Tufts University Art Galleries (MA), and Experimenter Gallery (IN). Rao's work is held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University, Yale University, The Cooper Union, The New School, UC Davis, Hunter College, Asia Art Archive in America, and Center for Book Arts in New York.
In 2026, Rao is a member at NEW INC, the New Museum's cultural incubator, a dual resident at Dieu Donné and Artists Alliance Inc., and has been awarded a fellowship at Initial Research in New York.
Rao lives and works in the New York metropolitan area and is a recipient of the 2025 Jersey City Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship.
