Rina Banerjee (born 1963) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

artist and sculptor."Bio"
Rinabanerjee.com, Retrieved online 17 October 2018. She currently lives and works in New York City. Her ambitious mid-career survey exhibition, ''Make Me a Summary of the World''––co-organized by and exhibited at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

and the

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st cent ...

––opened in 2018 and is slated to travel to the

Fowler Museum at UCLA The Fowler Museum at UCLA (commonly known as The Fowler, and formerly Museum of Cultural History and Fowler Museum of Cultural History) is a museum on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) which explores art and material ...

, the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, TN, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC through July 2021.

Early life and career

In 1963, Banerjee was born in a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

family in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(now

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

) in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

. She grew up in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Manchester and

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, and has lived in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

ever since. She was previously married to Columbia Professo
Sanat Kumar
with whom she had one child, Ananya. She remarried in 2023 to Peggy Reynolds. Banerjee has mentioned in interviews that the inspiration for her art comes from her childhood memories of visiting her grandfather during his homeopathic treatments. Many of the images and visuals from her visits with her grandfather have stayed with her and can be seen in her art work. She likes her artwork to be not static, but ever changing. She completed an M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Master of Fine Arts, Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in g ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1995, after graduating from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

with a B.S. in

Polymer Engineering Polymer engineering is generally an engineering field that designs, analyses, and modifies polymer materials. Polymer engineering covers aspects of the petrochemical industry, polymerization, structure and characterization of polymers, properties o ...

. Banerjee's work has been exhibited at the

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, and other notable museums.

Exhibitions

Below is a list of some of Banerjee's solo and group exhibits. * 1998: ''Home within a Harem'', Colgate University Gallery, NY * 2000: ''Auf Weidersehen,'' Admit One, Chelsea, NY — Banerjee uses Asian and Western materials. The exhibit has plastic tubing that runs along the walls and ending which end with rotten-looking fruit and leaves. The plants in the show represent tropical plants that were taken by western settlers to bring to other countries; some of the plants didn't translate well to other land while some blossomed. The room is also filled with a thick webbing which is meant to represent a digestive system, and within the system colorful ritual powder and spices are captured. * 2001: ''Antenna'', Bose Pacia Modern, New York * 2001: ''Phantasmal Pharmacopeia'', Debs & Company, Chelsea, NY * 2002: ''Phantasmal Pharmacopeia'', curated by Susette Min,

Painted Bride Art Center The Painted Bride Art Center, sometimes referred to informally as The Bride, is a non-profit artist-centered performance space and gallery particularly oriented to presenting the work of local Philadelphia artists, which presents dance, jazz, wo ...

, Philadelphia, PA (catalogue) * 2006: ''Fantasies without travel will travel'', AMT Gallery, Como, Italy * 2007: ''Foreign Fruit'', Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris * 2007: ''"Where the Wild Things Are" ...is no place at all and all places that cannot be lived in but visited, realized out of our careful, playful and tenacious tourism of others, realized as our mobility wanders too far'', Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin (2007) * 2008: ''Distant Nearness'' (with Bharti Kher and

Subodh Gupta Subodh Gupta (born 1964) is an Indian contemporary artist based in New Delhi. His work encompasses sculpture, installation art, installation, painting, photography, performance art, performance and video art, video. Early life and education G ...

), Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, KS * 2008: ''Allure'', Gallery Espace,

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India * 2009: ''Look into my eyes and you will see a world unexplainable, out of place'', Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels * 2009: ''Rina Banerjee and Raqib Shaw'', Thomas Gibson Ltd., London * 2010: ''Forever Foreign'',

Haunch of Venison Haunch of Venison was a contemporary art gallery operating from 2002 until 2013. It supported the work of contemporary leading artists, presented a broad and critically acclaimed program of exhibitions to a large public through international exh ...

, London — Banerjee's first solo show in the UK. * 2011: ''Chimeras of India & the West'',

Musée Guimet The Guimet Museum (full name in ; ''MNAAG''; ) is a Parisian art museum with one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia that includes items from Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Tibet, India, and Nepal, among other countries. Foun ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

* 2011: ''Imagining the other half of the world from here'', Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris * 2012: ''Creationismʼs Kiss'', Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels * 2012: ''A World of Lies'', Galerie Espace, Hong Kong, China * 2013: ''Bowerbirdnest'', Future Perfect, Singapore * 2013: ''A world lost'', The Smithsonian Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C. * 2013: ''What am I made of and how do you know my name?'', Ota Fine Art, Tokyo * 2013: ''Seven Sisters,'' Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 2014: ''Of Men and Worlds'', curated by Alain Berland, College des Bernardins, Paris * 2014: ''Disgust'', L.A. Louver,

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, CA — Her four sculptures in this show are made from an uncountable number of small objects that are wired and strung together. She uses cowry shells, rooster feathers, gourds, acrylic horns, glass vials, silk, and many other objects. Her sculptures could be either human or animal, still life or moving. It seems as though Banerjee does not look through junk to find materials for her art, but instead will selectively choose what she wants by ordering her materials off of specialty sites. This selective process she uses emphasizes the global culture of her art, and how she has many different pieces from all over the world, all of which form one cohesive work of art. * 2015: ''Migrations Breath'', OTA Fine Arts, Gillman Barracks,

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

— Colorful yet suggestive pieces of art, which seem to change with different angles or positions. She uses many objects in her works such as Indian sarees, glass bottles, and seashells. Critics have suggested that some of the names of Banerjee's artwork carry sexual implications. For example, the piece ''She Drew A Premature Prick'' and many of the pieces have been suggested to represent reproductive organs. Banerjee has said that she enjoys the way that artwork can be fluid and how one's perspective could change with something so simple as wind blowing. *2019: ''Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World'', Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Traveling to San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Fowler Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC *2019: ''Rina Banerjee: Blemish'', Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco *2020: ''Irresistible Earth'', an uncontrollable and unconditional love is bestowed to us upon birth. Love for nature infinitely ripening, delicious and dangerous, their fruits, a fermented and fresh gorgeous beauty…, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels, Belgium *2020: ''Vapor, Thread, Fire and Earth'', between ground and sky Masculine Mythologies and Feminine Escapes, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, FL *2020: ''Make Me A Summary of the World'', Traveling Solo Retrospective: curated by Jodi Throckmorton and Lauren Dickens, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN *2023-2024: ''Spirit in the Land'', organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, North Carolina; traveling to the

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

, Florida.

References

External links

Rina Banerjee
at Artsy.net
Rina Banerjee
at

ULAN Ulan may refer to: Places *Ulan, New South Wales, a town in Australia *Ulan County, in Qinghai Province, China *Ulan District, eastern Kazakhstan *Ulan, Iran, a village in Zanjan Province People * Ulan, politician from Inner Mongolia, China Mil ...

Rina Banerjee
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Rina American people of Bengali descent Painters from New York (state) Indian emigrants to the United States Case Western Reserve University alumni Yale School of Art alumni 20th-century Indian painters Living people 1963 births 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus 21st-century Bengalis Bengali artists Bengali women artists Artists from Kolkata 21st-century American women sculptors 21st-century American sculptors Indian women painters Indian women contemporary artists Indian contemporary painters 20th-century Indian women artists American artists of Indian descent Women artists from West Bengal Painters from West Bengal Sculptors from New York (state) 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters American people of Indian descent 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters