Sinem Banna


Sinem Banna is a Turkish-American artist currently living and working in both San Francisco, California, and her home town of Istanbul, Turkey and exhibits internationally.
Banna works in several disciplines, mainly sculpture and assemblage/collage, site specific installations, and murals. Her work often consists of three-dimensional compositions. A number of her works incorporate objects such as toy parts, tea glasses, and coffee beans so as to capture cultural signs and symbols in her work. She works frequently with Plexiglas constructions as well as light boxes.

Biography

In 1989, Sinem Banna received her BFA in Ceramics and Glass at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Turkey. She continued her training in France—first at the Villa Arson in Nice, and then at Sorbonne University in Paris. Banna then moved to the United States where she received her MFA in sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute in California in 1994. In 1997, Banna was granted US citizenship through the First Preference EB-1 Visa for Extraordinary Ability in the arts— with the USCIS sourcing a Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic Medal, under examples of eligibility criteria.

Career

Overview

Sinem Banna had her first solo exhibition in 1995 in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. Since then, Banna has showed her work throughout Europe and the United States. Exhibitions include those in the US cities of San Francisco, New York, New Mexico, and Los Angeles.
Internationally, Banna's exhibitions include the European cities of Istanbul, Nice, Copenhagen, Elsinore, and the 2004 Athens Olympics where Banna was selected as a cultural ambassador of art for the United States and Turkey. Upon this, Banna showed her work "Shadows at Noon" at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and received a grant under The Artiade "Olympics of Visual Art".
Sinem Banna has been reported by US and international media-- including the New York Times, CNN Turkey, the San Francisco Examiner, SF Weekly, and newspaper distributors in Europe including Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, and Sabah. In addition to printed publications, Banna's lectures, talks, and interviews have appeared on news channels and public radio stations.

Selected public works and site-specific installations

1994

Banna was awarded a Grant under the Lef Foundation for her work the "Almanac Project", "San Francisco talks with different voices". This outdoor site-specific installation was located in front of the San Francisco Library in Civic Center, San Francisco, California. The work, d metal almanac with a seven-foot tall page, invited viewers and the public to put down their thoughts, in writing, on the artwork—thus constructing one large book of the voices of the San Francisco Community.

2006

Banna was awarded a residency grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation The work, entitled "HEAR ME", is a permanent sculpture located in San Mateo Central Park, and was installed in 2009. The wood and metal bench surrounds a red maple tree and incorporates visual art and text from children in various educational programs in San Mateo County, aimed at children with autism, emotional challenges, and other special needs. The children who helped design the bench included students from the Wings Learning Center for autistic children, and the Edgewood Center for Children and Families, which serves emotionally abused or disturbed children. Banna also affixed 40 small silver bells to the bottom of the bench, which rang with any light breeze. The sculpture bench is five feet in diameter, and contains a circular seat consisting of 29 panels radiating outward; on which are imprinted children's words, phrases, and drawings. A smaller upper metal ring is placed four and a half feet high, hanging from which are the silver bells.

2009-2012

In conjunction with several different schools in the San Mateo Community and SMFC in California, Banna created several murals and site specific installations.
Of these include the following:
Banna was invited by the San Mateo Downtown Association for project "Meter Garden", consisting of parking meters for public art.
The project stations seven painted, decommissioned parking meters in the heart of downtown. The San Mateo Department of Public Works facilitated the project as well as its public display on East Third Avenue in San Mateo, California.

Professional activities

In 2005, Banna accepted a seat on the Board of Directors of the San Mateo City Arts Committee. In this same year she began work as curator of solo and group exhibitions throughout the US. Banna has worked as a lecturer as well as an educator for over 10 years at several different universities and educational institutions. Banna held several juror positions, and founded ‘Art Box' in 2006.
For over five years, Banna worked as an editor and as the United States representative for Art in Turkey magazine and Milliyet art magazine of Istanbul.

Awards and honors