Join the Moody for an interdisciplinary conversation between Artist-in-Residence Rina Banerjee and Georgina Baronian, assistant professor at Rice University School of Architecture. Moderated by Igor Marjanović, William Ward Watkin Dean of Rice Architecture, this open dialogue will explore the thematic focus and material practice of Banerjee’s body of work through the lens of global commerce, climate change, and the architectural environment.

The talk will run from 6 - 7 p.m., followed by a public reception in the Lantern Room until 8 p.m. 

About the Participants:

Born in Kolkata, India, and based in New York City, Rina Banerjee creates multi-faceted sculptures with materials sourced from around the globe, as well as vivid paintings, and drawings that have been shown at various museums and exhibitions worldwide. Through her practice, Banerjee highlights topical issues around the lasting effects of colonialism, identity, climate change, migration, and commerce in a globalized world. Banerjee received a BS in polymer engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH, and worked as a research chemist before completing her MFA at Yale School of Art, New Haven CT in 1995. She held teaching positions in post-colonial criticism at the Yale School of Art, and currently teaches in Columbia University’s art department. In 2020 she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant; in 2021 she was in residence at Art Explora, Paris.  Learn more here. 

Georgina Baronian is principal of clovisbaronian, an architectural practice based in California and Texas, and assistant professor at the Rice University School of Architecture. Her work explores the interrelation of climate and aesthetics, and how assumed notions of the production of thermal comfort can be critiqued and reconsidered through a spatial, experiential, and aesthetic lens. Georgina was the 2022-2023 Howard E. LeFevre Emerging Practitioner Fellow at the Knowlton School of Architecture and has held teaching positions at Cal Poly Pomona and Princeton University. Before establishing an independent practice, Georgina worked in Tokyo, Japan for the offices of SANAA and Junya Ishigami. Her work in Japan included projects for new cultural venues, educational institutions, housing, and large-scale public art installations in Europe, North America, and Australia. She has been internationally recognized for her work with the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction Next Generation Global Prize and the Arts Council Tokyo Arts & Culture Creation Subsidy. Georgina received her Master of Architecture from Princeton University and is a Registered Architect in the State of New York

Igor Marjanović, Dean of the Rice School of Architecture, studies the history of architectural pedagogy and practice, examining the role of drawings, exhibitions, and publications in the emergence of international architectural culture. His research has been published in anthologies, peer-reviewed journals, and magazines worldwide including AA Files, AD, AR / Architecture Research, arq, Architecture and Culture, Journal of Architectural Education, and OASE. Marjanović's collaborative approach to scholarship has led to critically acclaimed books such as Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision. His other publications build on these dialogues between art, architecture, and culture in a globalized world, including Tomás Saraceno: Cloud Specific and On the Very Edge: Modernism and Modernity in the Art and Architecture of Interwar Serbia (1918–1941).  Marjanović’s most recent book, The Evolving Project: The Journal of Architectural Education and the Expansion of Scholarship, is a co-edited volume that tells the story of postwar architectural pedagogy as an intellectual platform that engaged the larger social, cultural, and political issues of its time.