Rana Begum: Ordered Form

About

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, Begum’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.

In a much-anticipated return to her former home city, St Albans, this solo exhibition focuses on Begum’s geometric works created over the past three years. Curated by University of Hertfordshire Arts + Culture, Ordered Form presents sculptures, paintings, and screenprints, and also 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.

To extend the exhibition in the underground Weston Gallery, Begum is also taking over the Museum + Gallery’s historic Assembly Room upstairs. In January, the space will be filled by the artist’s vast site-specific installation No. 670 (Mesh installation). Originally made for a 2016 exhibition at Parasol Unit in London, the installation was then acquired and moved to the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, in 2017, from where it is being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 8. The young artist studied her foundation course at University of Hertfordshire, which she has said had a pivotal impact on her in opening up ideas and disciplines. This solo exhibition poignantly brings Begum’s work to her former home city and celebrates the success of an alumna of the University.

The exhibition is extended through a range of resources and events such as live workshops and artist talks. For more information, please visit  www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk and @stalbansmuseums

Rana Begum: Ordered Form runs from 8 December 2023 to 14 April 2024 at the St Albans Museum + Gallery. Open daily 11am – 5pm. The vast mesh installation in the Assembly Room is available from 20 January to 17 March 2024.

Venue Address: St Albans Museum + Gallery, St Peter's Street, St Albans AL1 3DH