Rana Begum
b. 1977, Bangladesh
Rana Begum was born in 1977 in Bangladesh. She lives and works in London. Begum’s work focuses on the interplay between light and colour, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her use of repetitive geometric patterns – found both within Islamic art and the industrial cityscape – takes its inspiration from childhood memories of the rhythmic repetition of daily recitals of the Qur’an. Influenced by the geometric abstraction of minimalism and constructivism and the work of artists such as Agnes Martin, Donald Judd, Jesús Rafael de Soto and Tess Jaray, Begum’s work ranges from drawings, paintings and wall-based sculptures to large-scale public art projects.
Recent solo exhibitions include Infinite Geometry, Wanås Konst, Sweden, (2021); A Conversation with Light and Form, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2018) following the Tate St Ives Artists Programme residency at Porthmeor Studios; Space, Light, Colour, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2018); Space, Light, Colour, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2017); The Space Between, Parasol Unit, London, UK (2016). In 2017, Begum curated a group exhibition, Occasional Geometries, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park featuring works from the Arts Council Collection. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Creative Folkestone Triennial, Kent, UK (2021); Gemeente Museum, Den Haag, Netherlands (2016); Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK (2018); The 11th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (2016) and The Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020). Begum is working on a forthcoming site-responsive commission for the new Arts of Islamic Cultures Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), opening 2021. A new publication, Rana Begum: Space Light Colour was published by Lund Humphries in 2021. She was also elected a Royal Academican in 2020.