young artist chat: bhrigu ranade, 22
I sat down with my friend bhrigu to chat about life and being a young creative individual!
Last summer, I interned at an international art gallery based in NYC, and beyond gaining another perspective on the art world, I was inspired by meeting other young people who are just interested in art as I am—for a million different reasons. It was during this summer that I met Bhrigu, who was interning with the art handling department.
Bhrigu is an arts and drums student at the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC) and before leaving Chicagoland, I had the privilege to see more of his work in person. Most of his stuff was stored in his apartment, which overlooked the city from a disorientingly high vantage point. As we talked, my view of the city warped and became unfamiliar, which I think is a reminder of the transformation and transportation that can happen in a good conversation.
I love studio visits, but I love studio visits with artists my age even more—most people aren’t fixed on becoming an artist with a capital “A.” And it feels nice to revel in a shared uncertainty of what to do and what to be right now. And Bhrigu is far from only interested in visual art—he’s more interested in building his streetwear brand Chapes that incorporates hand stitched logos, original printmaking, and designs. We also chatted about his dreams of potentially running a jazz cafe or arts center abroad one day, which is the kind of dream architecting that makes me appreciate that the world is much bigger than you think.
Walking around, I enjoyed seeing two different styles in his practice. There were the meditative, partially-rendered works that capture the sparsest impressions of interior and intimate space. Diagrams on fabric interspersed with text, images, and typography motifs. I snapped pictures of my favorites!
Another strand of his practice was his prints. Completely unapologetic, graphic, and dynamic. Bhrigu learned reductive woodcut printmaking skills from a class he took on traditional Chinese printing techniques, which he uses for his decidedly contemporary designs. I was just as struck by the subsequent reprints as the initial ink wore off, which adopted a pulsating 3D-like effect. The layered colors from the printmaking process made each reprint vibrate—a surprising purple within the tomato, ochre underneath a sunflower yellow. Bhrigu made the medium his own.
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Below is our interview, edited for length and clarity:
Katy: In three words, what are you feeling at this moment in time?
Bhrigu: Cool, calm, composed.
Katy: What’s a piece of culture that lives in your head rent-free?
Bhrigu: Picasso’s life and work.
Katy: What excites you?
Bhrigu: Ideating spaces, experiences, and lifestyles—understanding who I am, and where I want my art to get me to; meeting interesting people, discovering new ideas and ways of doings things, and adapting them to old projects and ideas.
Katy: What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?
Bhrigu: Either go into a mode of hibernation and rest—or go into a work-mode frenzy.
Katy: How would you describe your practice or work or approach to creative projects?
Bhrigu: Everything I create is a construction that I’ve physically made or manipulated with my hands. My approach is more physical—for me, it is important to connect to the material I am working with. My practice is a lifelong study of perfecting and mastering age old techniques and traditions of art-making and adapting them to contemporary themes which exist in society. I pull inspiration from my own life experiences to share my inner world through paint and paper. Everything I create is a culmination of the way I see and feel the world.
Katy: What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Bhrigu: Slow down. Second, work directly on large surfaces and remove the sketching stage/process of ideation. Simply create. Three, happiness lies within!
Katy: I love the idea of working big and removing the sketching process. Changing the medium always seems to unlock something when you’re stuck. Any bad advice?
Bhrigu: I've never received bad advice surprisingly, only interesting advice! And I am interested to see where my art takes me.
Interested in learning more? Connect with Bhrigu here. Stay tuned for his brand Chapes here.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for your patience throughout my move! I’m happy to share that I am now London based :) Stay tuned for next weekend’s newsletter—I’ll be on schedule!