Born 1979 in Mumbai, India, Manjari Sharma studied Visual Communication at the S.N.D.T. University in Mumbai and subsequently worked as photojournalist for The Times of India and Better Photography, the leading south Asian photography magazine. In 2001, her research for images brought her to the United States, where she graduated at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.
Living in New York City, Manjari became known with her long-term project “The Shower Series” (2009-2013) were she invited people to take a shower in her home. It dealt with the materiality of water and investigated at the same time the inner landscape of the human mind. Photos of the series were presented on numerous blogs and travelled to galleries and festivals around the world. Initiated in 2019, her still ongoing project “Surface Tension” returns to the element of water, though now she added sound, motion and projection.
Besides her cultural curiosity and her interest in the internal human conditions, she explores its strong connection to the sacred relationship to ritual, identity, memory, and mythology. Raised in Mumbai, her homeland, she questions Indian culture and traditions (Darshan, 2011-13, How to wear a Sari, since 2014) and refers to her personal experiences and her family (Loss and Resurrection, since 2011). Increasingly, the artist includes means of expression beyond Still photography in her oeuvre. Since 2017, she cooperates with Irina Rozovsky for the series “To See Your Face”, which was originally commissioned for the Talking Pictures exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here join observations of natural settings, the built world and society with private views. Planned as limited five-month pictorial dialogue between the two artists, they continued to reorganise the original image pairs. One of these diptychs is our Artwork of the Month / June 2024.
Manjari travelled not only in the US and India, but also to many other countries. Besides numerous solo and group exhibitions mainly in the US, her works even made journeys to Europe (Denmark, Germany, Spain) and are represented in numerous private and public collections. Moreover, they are regularly reviewed in prominent newspapers, journals and TV channels. She was granted several awards and honours. As passionate teacher, she held many lectures and workshops and is an associate professor at Art Center College of Design. Additionally, she published several photo books.
Manjari lives and works in Los Angeles, United States.