Rina Banerjee

Freedom wonders inside the fantastic, joyous, in relentless dreams free from constraints with movements wandering rotating entangled sinuous perpetual and glowing in effortless being and while wielding free will as “metallic otherness” we reach ourselves, our true selves, as singular and connected, diverse forever searching

OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST: SATURDAY 11 MAY, 3-5 PM

Born in Kolkata and based in New York, Rina Banerjee creates shamanistic sculptures and vibrantly sensuous paintings-exploring the complexities of identity, the aftermath of colonialism, the nuances of migration, and what it means to be human-through the lens of a transnational woman of color.

Banerjee's approach is characterized by its defiance of traditional hierarchies-be they cultural, material, or linguistic. Her multifaceted artistic practice includes crafting fetishistic assemblages from a mix of antiques and tourist-market trinkets; painting and collaging evocative images of women in states of ecstatic transformation; and composing poetic titles that draw viewers into the emotional atmosphere of her creations.

Her fourth solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery focuses on the fundamental human rights to freedom from oppression: to live in safety, to move freely, and to have hope. Banerjee contends that when governments fail to protect these rights, they become illegitimate. This exhibition is a plea for the rejection of injustice and the hope for more ethical world order.

Rina Banerjee (b. 1963, Kolkata, India) received a BS in Polymer Engineering and worked as a research chemist before completing her MFA at Yale in 1995. Her ambitious mid-career survey exhibition, Make Me a Summary of the World-was organized by the San Jose Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, traveled to the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC. Other recent solo museum exhibitions include the Smithsonian Museum's Sackler Galleries (Washington, DC) and the Musée Guimet (Paris). Her work was included in the Venice Biennale (2013 and 2017), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018), Prospect 4 in New Orleans (2017), the Busan Biennial (2016), the Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2015), Greater New York Shows at PS1/MOMA (2005 and 2015), and the Whitney Biennial (2000). Her work is in numerous international public and prestigious private collections.