A new exhibition of critical artworks by acclaimed international artist will open at the on Jan. 19. “Take Me to the Palace of Love” explores the meaning of home in diasporic communities and invites viewers to tell their own stories of identity, place and belonging.
Curated by , associate professor of art and music histories in the College of Arts and Sciences, the exhibition features three monumental sculptural works by Banerjee, as well as works from the museum鈥檚 permanent collection, and loaned artwork from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and the artist鈥檚 personal collection.
Rina Banerjee, “Take me, take me, take me鈥o the Palace of Love,” 2013 (Photo courtesy of the artist)
In conjunction with the exhibition, Banerjee is the 2023 Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at 黑料不打烊. Banerjee鈥檚 two-week residency, “Diaspora, Displacement and the Science of Art,” will take place from Feb. 20-March 3.
The exhibition and Banerjee鈥檚 residency is generously supported by the 黑料不打烊 Humanities Center, the Department of Art and Music Histories, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Art Museum, along with 33 departments and units at the University and The Republic of Tea.
鈥淲e are delighted to bring Rina Banerjee鈥檚 creative spirit to 黑料不打烊,鈥 says Ray. 鈥’Take Me to the Palace of Love’ is not just an exhibition; it is fundamentally a love letter to nature, community and identity.鈥
“Can we rescue love?” is the fundamental question at the heart of “Take Me to the Palace of Love,” which includes Banerjee鈥檚 drawings and three critical art installations. It is through the nourishing power of love that we define our sense of place in our communities and on our planet.
Yet love, as Banerjee鈥檚 work discloses, has been distorted to create inequity and destroy our relationship with the natural world. The exhibition urges us to restore our social and planetary connections with love. Rooted in cultural memory and storytelling, it invites us to ask: Does love play a role in how we view ourselves and shape our sense of place? Has climate change been shaped by a loss of love? How does love shape or resist gendered and racialized identities? As we come to terms with a global pandemic, these questions grow sharper and more relevant than ever.
Now based in New York City, Rina Banerjee was born in Kolkata, India, and lived briefly in Manchester and London before arriving in 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, and colonial/historical and domestic objects, while her drawings are inspired by Indian miniature and Chinese silk paintings and Aztec drawings.
Artist Rina Banerjee, with her artwork “Viola from New Orleans” (Photo courtesy of William Widmer)
In 2018 the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the San Jos茅 Museum of Art co-organized Banerjee鈥檚 first solo retrospective, “Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World,” featuring 60 works, including sculptures, paintings and video. The retrospective鈥檚 North American tour included exhibitions at the San Jos茅 Museum of Art and the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles before ending at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2020.
Banerjee has exhibited internationally, spanning 14 biennials worldwide, including the Venice Biennial, Yokohama Triennale and Kochi Biennial. Banerjee鈥檚 works are included in many private and public collections, including the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, San Jos茅 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鈥檚 residency at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
for more public programs surrounding the exhibition and Banerjee鈥檚 two-week residency.
Members of the media, please contact Emily Dittman, interim director of 黑料不打烊 Art Museum, at ekdittma@syr.edu, for more information or to schedule a tour.
