Scholar-in-Residence

Megha Ralapati
Charleston, SC | Spring 2025

FSA looks forward to hosting Megha Ralapati for our upcoming Spring 2025 Charleston residency. As a writer and researcher, her recent projects have focused on artists who understand their practices as a union between art, life and spirituality.

She is particularly interested in Vedanta, the philosophy of the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of Hinduism which articulate the unity of all existence, including concepts such as gnana (spiritual knowledge), bhakti (divine love), as well as frameworks for non-duality, non-attachment, surrender and ego dissolution. She is fascinated by the intersection between meditation and life, between practice and life, and how some artists are seeking to dissolve that boundary in their work.

Other scholarly concerns are notions of consciousness, awareness and mysticism within Vedanta and its interrelationship with mystical practices across traditions. Presently, her research is exploring such artists as Adrian Piper, Alice Coltrane, Trevor Hall and others whose study of Vedanta merits further understanding.

 

Megha Ralapati is an independent curator, writer and arts leader based in Chicago, who amplifies artists’ practice through cultural exchange and transnational dialogue.

Megha Ralapati is an independent curator, writer and arts leader based in Chicago, who amplifies artists’ practice through cultural exchange and transnational dialogue. She specializes in designing thoughtful artist-centered, cross-cultural research experiences between the US and internationally through her recent work with CEC ArtsLink (New York) and for over a decade at Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), initiating dynamic collaborations with community-based platforms like Project Row Houses (Houston), ARTPORT Tel Aviv, Center for Contemporary Art Lagos, as well as with foundations, universities and other institutions globally.

As a researcher and writer, Megha seeks to articulate the often intangible philosophical or spiritual foundations of artistic practice recently publishing texts on Faheem Majeed, Kaveri Raina, Pooja Pittie, Sanjeev Shankar, and others. Her writing has been included in various catalogues and publications, including for Documenta 14, Brooklyn Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, and the Devi Art Foundation, among others.

A well-regarded juror for artist awards and grants, and Megha has been a visiting critic, engaging and presenting to artists of all levels, including at the School of the Art Institute, NYU, and most recently at Asiko, an experimental pan-African summer intensive for artists. Megha is a current board member of Artist Communities Alliance, Enrich Chicago, and is a member of SpaceShift, an interdisciplinary art collective.

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Megha Ralapati | “Iconic Artists” Introduction

Megha Ralapati | “An Impermanent Practice”

Megha Ralapati | “Growing Cultures, Cultivating Attention”