Rana Begum

Rana Begum was born in 1977 in Bangladesh and currently lives and works in London. Begum’s work focuses on the interplay between light and colour, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her use of repetitive geometric patterns – found both within Islamic art and the industrial cityscape – takes its inspiration from childhood memories of the rhythmic repetition of daily recitals of the Qur’an. Influenced by the geometric abstraction of minimalism and constructivism and the work of artists such as Agnes Martin, Donald Judd, Jesús Rafael de Soto and Tess Jaray, Begum’s work ranges from drawings, paintings and wall-based sculptures to large-scale public art projects.

Recent solo exhibitions include Kate MacGarry, London (2024); Ordered Form, St Albans Museum + Gallery, St Albans, UK (2023-24); Dappled Light, Concrete at Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE and The Box, Plymouth, UK (2023); Dappled Light, Pitzhanger Manor, UK (2022) and Mead Gallery, UK (2021); Infinite Geometry, Wanås Konst, Sweden, (2021); A Conversation with Light and Form, Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2018), following the Tate St Ives Artists Programme residency at Porthmeor Studios; Space, Light, Colour, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2018) and Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2017) and The Space Between, Parasol Unit, London (2016).

Begum curated the exhibitions Opposing Forms at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2025) and Occasional Geometries at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2017). Group exhibitions include Life is More Important Than Art, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023); Desert X, Palm Springs, USA (2023); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2023); Simplicity of Form: Unfolding Abstraction, Bermuda National Gallery (2023); Rhythm and Geometry, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2022); Creative Folkestone Triennial, Kent, UK (2021); Actions. The image of the world can be different, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, UK (2018); Tribute to Sol LeWitt, Gemeente Museum, Den Haag, The Netherlands (2016) and The 11th Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2016). A comprehensive monograph, Rana Begum: Space Light Colour, was published by Lund Humphries in 2021. She was elected a Royal Academican in 2020.