07 Nov 2023
From Dubai to Sweden and London to New York, Rana Begum’s work has been viewed by millions across the globe – now she returns to her former home of St Albans to present brand new works at her solo exhibition, Ordered Form.
The solo exhibition will unveil fresh new works by the acclaimed artist, many created specifically for this five-month showcase.
Played out in the underground Weston Gallery, it focuses on Rana’s geometric work to create a remarkable spatial and visual experience. From January, she will take over the Assembly Room upstairs with vast site-specific installation No. 670 (Mesh installation).
Rana said: “Solo exhibitions are always exciting but this one has significant meaning as, after many years of long-haul destinations, my family and friends from my home city where I grew up, can now come and see my work.”
Internationally renowned for her work that spans across sculpture, painting, and architecture, Rana Begum has become synonymous with exquisite colour relationships and visual perceptions of pattern. Working in a wide range of mediums, from the intimate to the monumental, Rana’s practice focuses on the interplay between light and colour, shape, and form. The artist’s use of repetitive geometric patterns alongside her refined language of minimalist abstraction, creates a spatial and visual experience.
Ordered Form focuses on her geometric works created over the past three years and presents sculptures, paintings and screenprints, and features newly created relief works and a panel painting installation, fabricated especially for this exhibition. Also displayed are Begum’s studio experiments, maquettes and sketches which provide a fascinating insight into the artist’s practice.
Rana added: “I have always found the feeling of repetition calming – bringing back memories of daily recitals of the Qur’an. I remember a feeling of tranquillity that accompanied these rhythmic recitations. This feeling has pulled me towards repetition and order, and the idea of the infinite.”
Originally made for a 2016 exhibition at Parasol Unit in London, the Mesh installation was then acquired and moved to the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, in 2017, from where it is being lent to the exhibition. Constructed from a series of coloured modular components, the work is site-specific and capable of expansion or contraction depending on the space in which it is reconfigured. The installation transforms the gallery space for the viewer and creates an immersive sensory and participatory environment.
Now living and working in London, Rana Begum grew up in St Albans where she moved to with her family from Bangladesh at the age of eight. Rana was a pupil at St Albans Girls School and as a young artist studied her foundation course at University of Hertfordshire.
Rana Begum: Ordered Form runs from December 8 to April 14 at the St Albans Museum + Gallery daily from 11am-5pm. The vast mesh installation in the Assembly Room is available from January 20 to March 17.
