We are delighted to present Rana Begum, in what is her first solo show in London.

This new body of work appears to capture those fleeting instances when form, colour, light and structure momentarily align in our consciousness. Begum continues to explore her fascination with the repetition and geometry found in the vocabulary of Islamic Art and architecture; as well as how patterns and forms reoccur accidentally, randomly and chaotically within the urban environment (for example road signs, advertising and hazard markings). Using symmetry and reiteration, the work embodies how balance and harmony can emerge from chaos.

In contrast to Bell’s theory of ‘significant form’ which elevated and separated the aesthetic experience of viewing art above other aesthetic experiences (such as viewing nature), Begum’s work turns a more radical corner. It reawakens a fundamental instinct to critically engage with form and colour, whilst exploiting existing experiences of the world around us. The work teases our natural curiosity to explore visual stimuli as it juts and cuts into space, and the artist’s working processes place a high value on the slightest of very specific formal adjustments that can shift the experience of perception to something not anticipated. In this way the work is the object of emotional engagement, not a vehicle of description.

Rana Begum was born in Bangladesh in 1977 and brought up in England. She graduated with a BA from Chelsea School of Art and completed an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2002. Solo shows include Colour Codes at The Third Line, Dubai 2007, and group shows include Monologue/Dialogue II, Bischoff/Weiss, London (2008), Repetition and Sequence Jerwood Space London (2007), Monologue/Dialogue British Council Residency, Bangkok University Gallery Bangkok (2006), Art:21 Power/Memory/Structures/Play, Art Museum of Western Virginia, Ad Infinitum: Aesthetics of Repetition Haines Gallery San Francisco (2005) and Colour My World, Riflemaker, London (2005). The artist lives and works in London.

For more information please email:
office@goodengallery.com