We are delighted to celebrate artist Monica Rani Rudhar’s recognition as one of Broadsheet Sydney’s Three Rising Artists to Watch in Issue 02, Winter 2026. Written by Gitika Garg, the feature highlights Rudhar as one of Australia’s most exciting emerging artists, acknowledging the powerful intersection of personal history, migration and cultural memory that defines her multidisciplinary practice.
Broadsheet is one of Australia’s leading independent culture and lifestyle publications, recognised for its coverage of contemporary art, design, food, fashion and the creative communities shaping Australian cities. Through its editorial coverage of emerging voices and cultural movements, Broadsheet has become an important platform for artists, designers and creative practitioners working across the country.
A central focus of Rudhar’s sculptural practice is her relationship to South East Asian jewellery and heirloom objects, which become powerful vessels of memory and connection. Her monumental terracotta sculptures of earrings, inspired by family jewellery, transform intimate personal objects into symbols of migration, cultural inheritance and resilience. Through repetition and scale, Rudhar elevates these treasured objects beyond their material form, creating lasting monuments to family histories, relationships and traditions.
The Broadsheet feature also recognises Rudhar’s recent achievements, including her receipt of the 2026 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize and her major commission for the 25th Biennale of Sydney. Her three-channel video installation The fire in me was lit long ago traces the extraordinary story and legacy of her grandfather’s life as a freedom fighter, expanding her ongoing exploration of inherited memory, resistance and the stories passed between generations.
Through her evocative use of sculpture, performance and moving image, Monica Rani Rudhar continues to create spaces where personal and collective histories can be remembered, reimagined and carried forward. Her inclusion in Broadsheet Sydney’s Three Rising Artists to Watch marks an exciting moment in the trajectory of an artist whose work speaks to the enduring power of memory, ancestry and cultural connection.
The article is available to read online here.
