Ranbir Kaleka was born in 1953 in Patiala, Punjab. He initially gained a Diploma in Painting from the College of Art, Punjab University. In 1985, he went on to do his Master’s in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, on a Charles Wallace Scholarship and returned to India in 1998.

He wants his art to be treated like literature and be read like a passage or chapter. Even though his work has a high imaginative quality, he refuses to be classified amongst the Surrealists or the Dada artists. He eventually moved away from painting and started focusing on multimedia work. His love and interest in cinema led him to explore video art. He uses painting and video to create a spectral cinematic interface. Some of his popular works in this medium are Man Threading a Needle and Man with a Cockerel. His video work Crossings is a part of the permanent collection of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.

He was honoured with the National Award by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1979. He was also a part of an important group exhibition in 1988 titled Seventeen Indian Painters, celebrating 25 years of Gallery Chemould. His work was exhibited along with other prominent Indian artists like Raza, Tyeb Mehta, Jogen Chowdhury and many more.

The artist lives and works in New Delhi.