Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities in residence
Time: 10 a.m. February 20 - 2 p.m. March 3
Location: Various
Rina Banerjee
Diaspora, Displacement, and the Science of Art
Rina Banerjee (New York City)
Principal organizers Romita Ray (Art and Music Histories) and Emily Dittman (Syracuse University Art Museum) collaborate in hosting an exhibition and interdisciplinary slate of engagements with visiting artist, Rina Banerjee.
Project Summary: Take Me to the Palace of Love is an exhibition of three critical artworks by internationally acclaimed artist Rina Banerjee that will be held at the Syracuse University Art Museum (January 15–May 14, 2023). It explores the meaning of home in diasporic communities and invites minority groups in Syracuse to tell their own stories of identity, place, and belonging through residencies, a site-specific art installation, and a virtual exhibition catalogue curated in partnership with Banerjee. During the course of this exhibition, Banerjee will serve as the university’s Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities (February 19 – March 4, 2023).
Download a printable schedule of Rina's campus activities.
Support for this residency comes from:
- African American Studies
- Anthropology
- Art and Music Histories
- Chemistry
- CNY Humanities Corridor
- College of Arts and Sciences
- College of Law
- Community Folk Art Center
- East Asia Program
- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Engaged Humanities Network
- English
- Geography
- Goldring Arts Journalism and Communications Program
- Hendricks Chapel
- History
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program
- Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
- Museum Studies
- National Endowment for the Arts
- Office of Diversity and Inclusion
- Office of Research
- Office of Strategic Initiatives, Academic Affairs
- Renée Crown University Honors Program
- School of Architecture
- S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
- Social Differences, Social Justice Research Cluster
- South Asia Center
- Syracuse University Art Museum
- Syracuse University Humanities Center
- Syracuse University Libraries' Special Collections Research Center
- The Lender Center for Social Justice
- The Republic of Tea
- William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities
- Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE)
- Women's and Gender Studies
- Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition
Artist's Biography: Now based in New York City, Rina Banerjee was born in Kolkata, India, lived briefly in Manchester and London before arriving to Queens, New York. Drawing on her multinational background and personal history as an immigrant, Banerjee focuses on ethnicity, race, and migration and American diasporic histories in her sculpture, drawings, and video art. Her sculptures feature a wide range of globally sourced materials, textiles, colonial/historical and domestic objects while her drawings are inspired by Indian miniature and Chinese silk paintings and Aztec drawings.
In 2018 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the San José Museum of Art co-organized Banerjee’s first solo retrospective Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World featuring 60 works of sculptures, paintings, and video. The retrospective’s North American tour includes exhibitions at the San Jose Museum of Art, Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles ending at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville Tennessee in 2020. Banerjee has exhibited internationally, spanning 14 biennials worldwide, including the Venice Biennial (Biennale), Yokohama Triennale, and Kochi Biennial. Banerjee’s works are included in many private and public collections such as the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, San Jose Museum of Art, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.
Banerjee returned to teaching in 2020, as a critic for the Yale School of Art Graduate Program. Between September 2021 and January 2022, she served a prestigious artist’s residency at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.