Priyanka Rana “Our Stories Live Underground” Featured at Triton Museum

The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara will feature the sculptures of Priyanka Rana, a Bay Area-based artist originally from India.

The Triton Museum of Art presents “Our Stories Live Underground” (Aug. 30, 2025 – Jan. 11, 2026) by Priyanka Rana. Rana is a Bay Area-based artist from India whose work consists of sculptures with a variety of materials, though now primarily untreated wood. Rana’s artistic practices are rooted in ecology and sustainability, working with wood from naturally felled, local trees and transforming them into incredible works.

In 2018, Rana established a full-time sculpture practice after serving as a Vice President in the exhibitions industry and working as a Market Research Consultant. Rana describes her practice with sculpting wood as an “intimate dialogue.” Largely self-taught, Rana has developed her own sculptural language through a variety of techniques with a part of the process involving fire. Drawing on her Indian heritage, where fire represents sacred transformation, Rana’s approach uses controlled charring as a way of “painting” the wood, creating rich textures and uncovering the natural grain within the wood itself. The result speaks to “cycles of destruction and renewal,” Rana says.

Rana’s upcoming exhibition, “Our Stories Live Underground,” will consist of a selection of abstract sculptures. A central theme of Priyanka Rana’s work is the interplay between that which is dangerous and delicate. This balance is shown through Rana’s use of tools such as chainsaws, handsaws, and torches – tools requiring a high-level of meticulousness and care – with the incorporation of soft, intimate, and delicate materials such as fabric from saris and lungis, as well as children’s toys into the sculpted wood. The diversity of material incorporation plays a role in the stories that Rana is looking to tell, and the emotions she is hoping to convey. These abstract pieces invoke questions of nostalgia, community, and migration, reflective of Rana’s own personal journey that spans across three continents.

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As Rana’s sculptural practice grows, she continues to explore and experiment with other mediums in her projects, adding more figurative and symbolic dimension. Rana’s work has been widely exhibited across California, featured in prominent art festivals, solo and group exhibitions, as well as public installations and commissions.

“Our Stories Live Underground” by Priyanka Rana began showing at the Triton Museum of Art in the Rotunda Gallery on Aug. 30, 2025.

Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art provides free parking and free admission. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Triton Museum is located at 1505 Warburton Ave. in Santa Clara.