RANA BEGUM
b. 1977, BangladeshColour, light and a geometric visual language characterise Rana Begum’s artistic practice, often seen in large-scale public commissions. Her works blend painting, architecture and sculpture, combining ideas of minimalist abstraction and Islamic architecture.
Early Years
Rana Begum was born in Bangladesh in 1977 but moved to St Albans in England when she was eight. Memories of her early childhood did not become clear until she was in her twenties, and she has linked them to her use of light. “I realised that my connection to light began very early on. I found it fascinating just to watch the change of light in the rice field, or the water of the bathing pool,” she said in 2020. She completed her foundation course at the University of Hertfordshire in 1996 and wanted to pursue a degree in art, but was concerned about transporting her sculptural pieces to the interview. “My father realised how... determined I was,” she said in 2020. “He actually hired a man with a van and surprised me.” Begum graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art in 1999 and gained her MFA in painting from the Slade in 2002.
Rana Begum: Artworks
Light is vital to Rena Begum’s creative process and the viewer experience of her work. Taking ideas from the urban landscape, as well as Islamic art, she produces architectural sculptures and paintings that respond and react to natural light through reflection and absorption. She uses a huge array of materials and mediums, including steel, aluminium, glass, copper, wood and brass, but also acrylic paint, fishing net and ink on paper.
- Begum first experimented with reflectors during a 2006 residency in Bangkok, but during the mid 2010s she took the medium further—inspired by the furniture of the urban environment, such as road signs, she created a series of Reflectors that changed as their exposure to light varied.
- In the giant (10-metre long) painting No 1079 Painting Large (MG) (2021), Begum uses acrylic and spray paint on canvas, forming blobs of colour in patches of blues, pale yellows and pinks, with darker blobs scattered throughout and creating an effect that suggests movement, even though this isn’t a three-dimensional work.
- In her 2002 exhibition Dappled Light, a range of UK venues allowed Begum’s work to respond to light in different ways. At the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre, she scattered the elements of her powder-coated steel-mesh sculpture No 1081 Mesh (2021) across the ceiling, like confetti or petals. When the exhibition moved to Sir John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, however, she hung them below a skylight so the sculpture appeared more cloud-like.
Rana Begum: Select Public Commissions
- No 724 Reflectors, Westgate, Oxford (2017)
- No 1054 Arpeggio, Folkestone Triennial (2020)
- No 1088, Cleveland Clinic, London (2021)
- No 1104 Catching Colour, The Line, London (2022)
- No 1273 Flag, Art of London and Royal Academy (2023)
- No 1387 Fence, Verbier 3-D Foundation (2025)
- Reflectors, Ismaili Centre, Houston (2025)
- Stone, Climate Clock, Oulu (2025)
- No 1599, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne (2026)
- No 1616 Fence, London Festival of Architecture (2026)
Rana Begum: Select Exhibitions
Select Solo Exhibitions
- Rana Begum, Lehmann Maupin, New York City (2026)
- Infinite Ground, Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne (2026)
- Reflection, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2025) (and touring)
- Rana Begum, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2025)
- Rana Begum, Kate MacGarry, London (2024)
- Ordered Form, St Albans Museum (2023)
- Dappled Light, Mead Gallery, Warwick (2022) (and touring)
- Reflection on Colour and Form, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
- Infinite Geometry, Wanas Konst, Knislinge (2021)
- Perception and Reflection, Third Line Gallery, Dubai (2019)
- Conversation with Light and Colour, Gallery 10, Tate St Ives (2018)
- Space Light Colour, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (2017) (and touring)
- The Space Between, Parasol Unit, London (2016)
- Towards an Infinite Geometry, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2015)
- Linear Abstraction, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2015)
- Rana Begum, Galeri Mana, Istanbul (2014)
- No 10, The Third Line, Dubai (2013)
- Rana Begum, Bischoff/Weiss, London (2012)
- The Folded Page, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2011)
- Rana Begum, Delfina Foundation, London (2010
- The Moment of Alignment, The Third Line, Dubai (2009)
- Transient Symmetry, VineSpace, London (2008)
- Colour Codes, The Third Line, Dubai (2007)
Select Group Exhibitions
- Whispers on the Horizon, Taipei Biennial (2026)
- The Only Way Out Is Through: The Twentieth Line, The Third Line, Dubai (2025)
- Desert x 2023, Desert x Biennial, Coachella Valley (2023)
- Zim-Zum: The Folding World, Patrick Heide Contemporary Arts, London (2022)
- Rhythm and Geometry, Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich (2021)
- Guests: Artists and Craftspeople, Istanbul Modern (2020)
- Is This Tomorrow? Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019)
- Frieze Sculpture Park, London (2018)
- Royal Academy Summer Show, London (2018)
- Occasional Geometries, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2017)
- 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016)
- New Visions, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2016)
- Future Light, Vienna Biennale (2015)
- Geometries of Difference, Dorsky Museum, New Paltz (2015)
- The Edge of Painting, The Piper Gallery, London (2013)
- The New Middle East, Willem Baars, Amsterdam (2011)
- How Nations are Made, Cartwright Hall and Manor House, Bradford (2009)
- Pattern Recognition, The City Gallery, Leicester (2009)
- Repetition and Sequence, Jerwood Space, London (2007)
- Ad Infinitum: The Aesthetics of Repetition II, Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2005)
Further Reading
- Rana Begum’s official website
- Rana Begum’s Instagram
- Artist profile page at Cristea Roberts Gallery
- 2024 interview from Roadbook
- Rana Begum in conversation from 2023
- 2020 interview in RA Magazine
- 2020 interview with Identity
Rana Begum FAQs
What are Rana Begum’s influences?
The geometry and bold colours in Begum’s work are partially influenced by her early childhood in Bangladesh, seeing Islamic art and architecture. She was also inspired by the American minimalist Donald Judd. “People say Judd’s work is cold and soulless, whereas I think it’s the complete opposite. I’m so moved by interacting with his works, especially by how I experience light when I see them,” she said in 2020.
Did Rana Begum collaborate with Tiffany & Co?
Yes, in 2024, inspired by the jewellery brand’s classic 1970 Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff, she created a window display for Selfridges department store in London. The installation, No 1403 Reflectors (2024), was a concertina screen made of yellow, blue and white reflective rectangular tiles with mirrored panels either side to create the illusion of the work drifting into infinity.
Does Rana Begum work with engineers?
Yes, Begum frequently collaborates with Steve Webb of the UK engineering firm Webb Yates. In 2024, the pair produced No 1387 Fence, made of powder-coated fence panels and local logs, for the Verbier 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park. Inspired by both the landscape and the idea of preserving it, the sculpture was designed so it could be taken down without leaving a mark, and also that the parts could be used and reused. In 2026, the pair worked together again for No 1616 Fence, a pink fence panel and stone sculpture that was part of the London Festival of Architecture and installed outside the Brutalist Space House. Speaking at the time, Begum said: “I’ve been really driven by is this idea of the infinite... You can push the boundaries of some of the limits of engineering as well as this visual splendour that you have with material and sculpture and spaces.”
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