All Over Albany

Siona Benjamin: Beyond Borders at Opalka Gallery

We took a few minutes to check out the exhibit currently on display at the Opalka Gallery on the Sage Albany campus: Siona Benjamin: Beyond Borders. The works are engaging and interesting, touching on topics of identity and multiculturalism.

From the statement at the head of the exhibit:

Siona Benjamin combines imagery from her Mumbai origins with global social issues to illustrate cultural, religious, and feminist narratives. Her life is a mosaic -- a Bene Israel woman, raised in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim India, educated in Catholic and Zoroastrian schools, and now living in the United States -- and so is her art. Inspired by traditions as diverse as Indian miniature painting, Byzantine icons, illuminated manuscripts, and American Pop Art, she attempts to create a dialogue between the ancient and the modern as she transitions between worlds.

With degrees in both painting and theater set design, she weaves themes of identity and place, belonging and being outcast, into her varied works and forces us to reflect on myth and reality. Her use of blue in portraits represents her view of herself as "a Jewish woman of color, of being the other, of being transcultural, of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time."

There is/was (depending on when you're reading this) an opening event Thursday evening starting at 5 pm with a talk by Benjamin. A reception from 6-8 pm follows. It's free to attend. There's also a curators tour September 29 at 5:30 pm.

There are a few other quick pics of the exhibit after the jump if you're curious.

The exhibit is on display through October 9.

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