In 1963, Banerjee was born in a Bengali family in Calcutta in the Indian state of West Bengal. She grew up in London and New York City, and has lived in the United Statesever since. 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, Yale University in 1995, after graduating from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio with a B.S. in Polymer Engineering. Banerjee's work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and other notable museums. She is currently represented by in San Francisco.
"Make Me a Summary of the World"
Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World is the first in-depth exploration of the contemporary practice of the artist, co-organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the San José Museum of Art. Known for her large-scale sculptures and installations made from materials sourced throughout the world, Banerjee’s works investigate the splintered experiences of identity, tradition, and culture, prevalent in diasporic communities. Using a variety of materials ranging from African tribal jewelry to colorful feathers, light bulbs, and Murano glass, Banerjee’s art celebrates diversity at the material level. These sensuous assemblages present themselves simultaneously as familiar and unfamiliar, thriving on tensions between visual cultures and raising questions about exoticism, cultural appropriation, globalization, and feminism.
Solo exhibitions
List of solo exhibitions:
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, Philadelphia, PA
2006: Fantasies without travel will travel, AMT Gallery, Como, Italy
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
2014: Disgust, L.A. Louver, Venice, 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 chose 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 — 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.
