Born in Goa, India, Rujuta Rao completed her MFA in interdisciplinary art from Parsons School of Design, New York, in 2014, and her BFA in sculpture from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 2011.

 

Rujuta Rao’s multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, book art, and sound art, alongside a parallel practice of conceptual and functional garments. Her work is research-driven and intensely personal, using material investigation to explore migration, place, family history, and hospitality. By habitually revisiting these subjects, Rao challenges a linear and singular reading of her expansive artistic practice. While largely conceptual and abstract, her work addresses foundational questions of human existence, including the role of objects as catalysts for interpersonal connection and the relationship between the human body and written text. 

 

Rao’s practice is informed by her migratory living, shaped by global movement and adaptability, often articulated through the metaphor of mangroves. Since the beginning of her career, much of her work has been mobile, reflecting her transience and resourcefulness. This mobility has also shaped the intimate—often handheld—scale of her pieces. Rao is present within her interactive performances which seek to build community by fostering dialogue between the artist and audience members. This dynamic is particularly evident in her BAR series, participatory installations where she brings together book art and hospitality, inviting the audience to experience a menu of artworks across a bar counter. Informed by her past experience as a bartender and her training as a Japanese sake advisor, this series is focused on her research into the Goan alcoholic beverage cashew feni, its colonial history, and her family’s migration to Goa.

 

Rao's studio practice has been enriched by prestigious residencies globally, contributing to a body of work that is often site-specific or assembled for exhibition. In 2024, during her residency at the Center for Book Arts in New York, she developed wearable publications, integrating text, the human body, books, and garments.