“Make me a summary,” is one of Banerjee’s works of art on display. (photo courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels)

The Fowler Museum at UCLA presents “Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World,” the artist’s first mid-career retrospective that brings together her installations, crafted sculptures and ethereal paintings.

The exhibition, which runs through May 31, offers an opportunity to experience almost 20 years of Banerjee’s work, including a re-creation of her installations from the 2000 Whitney Biennial and 2017 Prospect New Orleans, as well as a selection of sculptures featured in the 2017 Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva.

In a single sculpture, one can find African jewelry, a Chinese feather fan, Italian Murano glass, Japanese and Korean fabrics, and South Asian antiques, all joined together in conversation and conflict.

“Although Banerjee has exhibited extensively in Europe and South Asia, this critically-acclaimed retrospective, which premiered at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2018, gives her original, vibrant and provocative multimedia oeuvre the spotlight it deserves in the U.S.,” said Marla C. Berns, director of the Fowler. “Banerjee’s art resonates with the Fowler’s mission, rejecting the idea that identity is based on one culture or gender.”

Within the Fowler’s exhibition space, large installations serve as focal points for exploring overlapping themes: colonialism and globalism; immigration and identity; gender and sexuality; climate change and the natural world.

“For 20 years, [Banerjee] has been using her work to disrupt conventional notions of identity, delving into the complex territory of cultural fragmentation and self-identification, which makes her an important voice today,” said exhibition co-curators Jodi Throckmorton and Lauren Schell Dickens. “We’re particularly excited to see her retrospective travel to the Fowler Museum at UCLA, located within a region that is home to so many diasporic groups.”

The Fowler Museum at UCLA is located at 308 Charles E. Young Drive North.

For information, call (310)825-4361, or visit fowler.ulca.edu.