What: The opening reception a new exhibit for Siona Benjamin’s multimedia art. Originally from Mumbai, now living in the US, Benjamin holds MFA degrees in both painting and theater set design. Her multimedia work reflects her background as a Jewish Indian woman raised in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim India and educated in Catholic and Zoroastrian schools. Inspired by traditions as diverse as Indian miniature painting, Byzantine icons, illuminated manuscripts, and American Pop Art, she combines the imagery of her past with the role she plays in America today, making a mosaic that includes cultural, religious, and feminist narratives.

 

Featuring over 80 works, this survey will include examples from her early series, Finding Home, begun in the 90s, on up through her current project, Exodus: I See Myself in You, about the struggles of Syrian refugees. Many of her figures, such as the female characters in Finding Home, have blue skin. It’s a color Benjamin says she picked for its neutrality to represent her “skin color as being a Jewish woman of color, of being the other, of being transcultural, of belonging everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”

 

Where:  Opalka Gallery, 140 New Scotland Ave.
Albany, NY 12208. 

 

When: Thursday, September 8, 2016. Artist lecture at 5:00 pm. Opening reception from 6:00-8:00 pm. Exhibition closes October 9, 2016.