Artists in Conversation | Rana Begum

Rana Begum will talk to Sarah Victoria Turner, Director, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, about her studio practice and recent projects.

About Rana Begum

Rana Begum was born in 1977 in Bangladesh and moved to Hertfordshire, England, in 1983. She received her BA in fine art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of London, in 1999 and her MFA in painting from Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2002. Begum’s work distills spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of Minimalist abstraction, Begum blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting, and architecture. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape and incorporates geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture. Light is fundamental to her process. Begum’s works absorb and reflect varied densities of light to produce an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensory.

In 2012 Begum received the Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture, and in 2017 she received the Abraaj Group Art Prize. Begum has participated in both solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Arts Council Collection, London; British Council Collection, London; Government Art Collection, London; Sainsbury Visual Art Centre, Norwich; Simons Foundation, New York; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India; and Farjam Collection, Dubai. She lives and works in London.