Born in Calcutta, India in 1963, Banerjee grew up in London and eventually moved to New York. She received her BS degree in Polymer Engineering at Case Western University in 1993 and took a job as a polymer research chemist upon graduation. She left the science profession to receive her MFA from Yale University in 1995. Banerjee’s work has been exhibited internationally, including but not limited to New York City; Paris; London; Tokyo; Los Angeles; New Delhi; Milan; Singapore; and notably an installation at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC in 2013. The artist’s works are also included in many private and public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Queens Museum, New York City; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York City. Her work was recently featured in Viva Art Viva at the 2017 Venice Biennale and Prospect.4 in New Orleans. Rina Banerjee currently lives and works in New York City and Philadelphia.

"Rina Banerjee's art is a quixotic universe of gods and monsters. She manipulates swans' wings, luminous beads, light bulbs and dribbles of red paint into sculptural assemblages that look like shrines, or religious offerings left for an unknown deity. It barely seems surprising that a catalogue for a recent exhibition began with the words: "Once upon a time in a land far away, where the wild things are …"Born in Calcutta in 1963, but raised in London and New York, Banerjee could easily be described as facing both east and west. She confronts Orientalism and the legacy of British colonial rule in paintings and sculptures, lacing her semi-erotic pictures with pseudo-spiritual imagery that could allude to Hindu mysticism. The sculptures she creates are assembled out of cheap knick-knacks, many of which are holiday souvenirs. Peacock fans, feathers and paper parasols are splayed out like headdresses on a Mardi Gras float; shards of glass or crystal are scattered like confetti. The result implies a distinctively American love of spectacle.Her titles are frustratingly childlike – long, garbled and misspelled sentences that seem to veer off on tangents that undermine the fairytales she alludes to. One reads: "Goldielocks, when and where can our desire to reach be? In the larger world she can roam and not be still … then does temptations turn to know and curiosity can rock – leaving her cut, cut free." This use of folklore implies that Banerjee is attempting to find connections between cultures – her artworks representing a collective cultural confusion brought about by immigration and exile. Yet ultimately her paintings and installations are seductive constructions. The gold leaf, the watery dribbles of hot pink, the hybrid forms – all are as infatuating as sirens, offering the lure and terror of the exotic.Why we like her: For Take Me, Take Me, Take Me … to the Palace of Love, a burning pink Taj Mahal made from rose-coloured Reynolds plastic wrap, which was inspired by a souvenir Banerjee picked up in India in her twenties.An alchemist's dream: She originally trained as a material science engineer at Case Western Reserve University – good grounding for a sculptor who likes to mix chemicals and burn plastic. " ~ Jessica Lack, Artist of the Week, The Guardian, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/25/rina-banerjee-mythologies

Artist Rina Banerjee in conversation with Jodi Throckmorton, Curator, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and Dr Sussan Babaie, The Courtauld Institute of Art. Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World