SOLO EXHIBITION AT THE THIRD LINE (MARCH 5 - MAY 9, 2019) The Unexpected Geometries of Urban Environments in Rana Begum’s Latest Body of Work

Rana Begum / Photo by Maisha Hossain / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

The exhibition takes its cues from Rana’s 2006 British Council residency in Bangkok, where she first experimented with reflectors as a medium for creative expression. Interested in readymade materials for their ability to translate abstract ideas into tangible forms, Rana returned to reflectors a decade later with a 50 meter long work installed at Lewis Cubitt Square in London's King's Cross in 2016.

Fast forward a couple of years and scale down a couple of feet, Rana’s new reflector works describe our ever-evolving built environment. Inspired by the straightforward patterns and vibrant colors of roadsigns and the way in which their surfaces shift as the day progresses, these works too shift and change as light exposure varies and as viewers walk around them. Complementing Rana’ wall-based pieces are towering structures that echo Dubai’s vibrant cityscape. Akin to our urban environments, Rana’s new body of work reveals a world of contrasts: the reflectors’ static nature yet perpetual movement; the preciousness of an artwork and the simplicity of quotidian materials; the clear delineation of each work yet the sense of infinity its constitutive elements and repetitive patterns conjure. Beyond such dichotomies, what Rana’s works succeed to orchestrate is the contemplative nature of urban chance encounters.

Rana Begum, No. 857 Reflector, 2018, Reflectors, 248 x 463 x 3 cm / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Rana Begum, No. 858 Reflector, 2018, Reflectors, 149 x 189 x 5 cm / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Rana Begum, No. 858 Reflector, 2018, Reflectors, 149 x 189 x 5 cm, detail / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Rana Begum, No. 831 Reflector, 2018, Reflectors and aluminium, 106 x 107 x 20 cm (diptych) / Courtesy of The Third Line and the artist

Rana Begum

Rana Begum received her Fine Arts Degree in painting from the Chelsea College of Art and Design and her Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, in London, where she currently lives and works.

Lodged between optical art and minimalism, Rana’s works draw their inspiration from repetitive geometric patterns found within Islamic art and urban architecture. She takes her experience of the vibrant collage of the urban environment and concentrates it through a process of distillation and filtration. Her work, minimal in its formal language, imposes order and system by abstracting those moments of accidental, aesthetic wonder.

Rana’s first museum solo exhibition Space Colour Light opened at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in May 2017 and traveled to Djanogly Gallery in Nottingham, UK in July 2018. Other solo exhibitions include A Conversation with Light and Form, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2018); Rana Begum: The Space Between, Parasol Unit, London, UK (2016); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2014); and New Works, Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2010). Rana has participated in many international group exhibitions including: Heavy Metal – Women to Watch, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA (2018); Actions. The Image of The World Can Be Different, Kettle’s Yard, London, UK (2018); The Order of Things, The Wilson, Cheltenham, UK (2017); Sol LeWitt - A Tribute, Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands (2017); Flatland, MRAC Serignan, France (2017); The Shapes We’re In, Paul Carey-Kent, London, UK (2015); Geometries of Difference: New Approaches to Ornament and Abstraction, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York at New Paltz, New York, USA (2015); Future Light, Vienna Biennale 2015: Ideas for Change, MAK-Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria (2015); Linear Abstraction, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, USA (2015); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2014); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK (2012).

Rana’s works have been acquired by international institutions and foundations including Art Museum of Western Virginia, Virginia, USA; Ernst & Young Collection, London, UK; British Telecom Headquarters, London, UK; The London Institute, London, UK; and MoNA (Museum of Old and New Art), Tasmania.