Rina Banerjee
76.2 x 55.9 cm
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.
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Rina BanerjeeSpoken to like earthquake, like mistakes, felt like heavy pancakes, made me shake, melt like ice cream on hot days., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and copper leaf on paper24 x 18 in
61 x 45.7 cm -
Rina BanerjeeMorning dove, morning love., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and copper leaf on paper18 x 24 in
45.7 x 61 cm -
Rina BanerjeeSo you heard me the Brown-headed Nuthatch crow, climb high free me, my heart, my vote., 2024acrylic, ink and collage on paper24 x 18 in
61 x 45.7 cm -
Rina BanerjeeAn occult beneath created never never ever treasures, underground, where ambitions for justice lie buried, a freak of biology, endowed with feathers blistered not from light and whence societies of unusual negligence speak as unseen voices to deliver with, 2024acrylic and ink on paper30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeeLucy and Billy broke the rope punished by winter's curls and prickly girls spring arrived., 2024acrylic, ink and copper leaf on paper30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeeThe magical, fantastic and bizarre collaborated to form herself assertiveness a kind of consciousness, agency., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and brass leaf on paper47 1/2 x 18 in
120.7 x 45.7 cm -
Rina BanerjeeIn the oriental tale which has a tale, a fictionalized world sedated fear, put to sleep freedom but tail or no tail she liked it severed forever., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and silver leaf on paper47 1/2 x 18 in
120.7 x 45.7 cm -
Rina BanerjeeAffinity and intimacy, no excess of miracles could explain my elephant my self as one., 2024acrylic, ink and collage on paper22 x 15 in
55.9 x 38.1 cm -
Rina BanerjeeTimeless birds to be watched, tireless mornings to wait in hopes to be free as feathery flight while she listens as the squeaky voices of whip-poor-wills voices tow., 2024acrylic, ink and collage on paper18 x 24 in
45.7 x 61 cm -
Rina BanerjeeBlue jays at the bird feeder, five legs of all beak and muster, a nervous hunter weary of others at the hole in flutter, in sun hit my shutter., 2024acrylic and ink on paper22 x 30 in
55.9 x 76.2 cm -
Rina BanerjeeMother gathered Three or no more dirty black stones, tossed them to sky that could break what had hardened her ground and without frown or flirt of flower father like grease or butter slipped aside to free her from forty and some more grown men who held h, 2017acrylic on two wood panels with sequin fabric collage80 x 40 x 2 in
203.2 x 101.6 x 5.1 cm -
Rina BanerjeeWedding thieves, they stole her away on that blessed day, full that was a day full of frills and ruffles, borders draped, dragged, pinched to anchor, barefoot petticoat and chemise, shoulder pads and anklets, stole her from her family, waked her in mourni, 2018gourd, horn, glass beads, wire, copper crochet, copper wire, Murano glass beads33 1/2 x 31 1/8 x 19 1/4 in
85 x 79 x 49 cm -
Rina BanerjeeUnseasonably Submerged, under the reddest algae and her magnetic electrification a super unnatural being beneath yearned lingered waiting for rebirth on earth, 2024acrylic on canvas36 x 96 in
91.4 x 243.8 cm -
Rina BanerjeeIn a whirlwind, upside down two birds one named memory and the other sleepy past waving arms tried to lift mountains with her flocks flirted with sky and tickled the night to stop time., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and copper leaf on paper30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeeThe immigrant, in that instant of arrival when identity strikes to overtake a consciousness divide above and below, what is seen is also unknowable, upside down and sideways., 2024acrylic, ink and collage on paper18 1/2 x 24 in
47 x 61 cm -
Rina BanerjeeMonsters with an eagle eye., 2024acrylic, ink, collage, copper and platinum leaf on paper30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeeSecret Perch was this perfect girl, mysterious and waiting for New World real with fern and freedom and fins and friends., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and copper leaf on paper24 x 18 in
61 x 45.7 cm -
Rina BanerjeeHer GPS disobeyed her commitments, her afternoon pool dates, even her poker games but not her gambling debts so she flew like strong bird a yellow lady finch, not house finch in clever stripes of one hundred marks., 2024acrylic, ink, collage and copper leaf on paper30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeePinched horn, infallibility of empires’ wish to claim virtue, disordered when evil is sung in sing song surrender to greed bled civilization with no need., 2024horns, gourd, silk, fabric, sequins, beads, dyed rope, shells36 x 40 x 12 in
91.4 x 101.6 x 30.5 cm -
Rina BanerjeeHear her jingle, a feathery collar from which she hollered when merchants made milky mistakes and ballsy governments squandered without secrets, so she lamented of what of descendants. She thought into her mirrors we can’t be friends now ring ruler, the , 2024handheld mirrors, antlers, wood head, gourd, sequins, feathers, brocade fabric, metal flowers, synthetic hair40 x 26 x 22 in
101.6 x 66 x 55.9 cm -
Rina BanerjeeLife after death, freed, in a shell that remains, dismantled and repurposed, diligently loose and now mobile when unearthed evokes new skin where once like hermit and Houdini combined living is entangled now awake slip out to free, see, feel speak., 2024shells, sequins, synthetic hair, sand3 x 19 x 19 in
7.6 x 48.3 x 48.3 cm -
Rina BanerjeeOut of hollowness of world She punctured tight twisted curled horn, meaty teeth a wagon of emotion, 2017/2024silk, nets, sequins, beads, bottles, shells, feathers, Murano glass, gourd50 x 39 x 21 in
127 x 99.1 x 53.3 cm -
Rina BanerjeeHead Strong, in new skin, this bird she could walk strong going forward in bare feet, iron feet, ballsy and benevolent she wheeled freedom out and about like her sun's rays, 2024upholstered head, brocade fabric, cobbler shoe forms, beads, shells, gilt wood bird, serving spoons, synthetic hair, tassels, light bulbs25 x 13 x 13 in
63.5 x 33 x 33 cm -
Rina BanerjeeHiding her silken tales and tail was her trickery. Saddled in the colonial -era, buried in the misery of prejudices she took sharp focus on sweet freedom and like sweet potatoes coiled and oiled by education and village wisdom she escaped like Houdini, 2024chair with gourd, head, paint, bulb, silk, velvet, beads21 x 14 x 24 in
53.3 x 35.6 x 61 cm -
Rina BanerjeeRunaway in rope, liberty protested mirrored in records of menials, natives, and female messages. Massages to the law extenuated imbalances breast cloth agitation of 1813 gave authority a dosage patriarchal intoxication., 2024Murano glass monkey, spinner’s wheel, drying rack, vintage iron hook & pulley, assorted synthetic, cotton and jute rope, four iron wheels, shells, fish nets, painted gourds, wire, red and green synthetic hair extensions, metal fish cake mold, watermelon net bags, vintage handheld mirrors, sequins, sand, pigeon and pheasant feathers, four crayfish shells, light bulbsdimensions variable
