Rhea Banker is a photographer and award winning book designer. After living and working in New York City for 30 years, she now makes her base in Northwestern Massachusetts. Much of her work is based on journeys to far rocky edges of the world, including Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Greenland, and Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego. Her abstract studies of patterns within the Earth’s ancient surfaces have been exhibited in a variety of museums, galleries, and cultural centers, including locations in Copenhagen, Denmark; Edinburgh, Scotland; Scotland's Outer Hebrides; New York, New York, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in a variety of museums in Greenland (see below).
Much of her work is based on ancient movements recorded within the Earth’s crust and maps of imagined lands. Her textural abstract images are her reflections of these movements, and reveal her own attempts at understanding and sharing stories held within the landscape..
Her most recent work is focused on explorations along Greenland's west coast over the last 5 years. These newest images are responses to the deep connections she experiences between stone, sea, and ice as we witness a new epoch in the life of our fragile planet.
She has also done site-specific work and has permanent installations for the Stornoway Airport, Isle of Lewis; Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, Scotland; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, New York; and the University of Pennsylvania Berks Campus, Pennsylvania.
In addition to Rhea’s photographic work, she is a professional book designer. Her designs have won multiple awards, and have been repeatedly exhibited at the New York Bookbinder’s Exhibitions in New York City.
A graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Rhea received her BFA in Design and a BA in Art History. While there, she was the winner of the Evelyn Rumsey Lord Travel Fellowship. She has lectured undergraduates in Medieval Art History as well as in the History of Photography. She is currently based in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
EXHIBITIONS, INSTALLATIONS and EVENTS
2023 – Anchor House/The New England Visionary Artists Museum - Excavations/Revelations - new work from Greenland - Northampton, Massachusetts
2023 – Olive Free Library - cARTography: Alternate Routes - maps in art group show - West Shokan, New York
2022 – Uummannaq Children’s Home - Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape/Exhibit and children’s workshop - Uummannaq, Greenland
2021 – Forbes Library- As Glaciers Recede: Textures of Svalbard - Works from an Arctic Residency - Northampton, Massachusetts
2021 – Salmon Falls Gallery - Divergence/Shaping the Land - work during a year of lockdown - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
2020 - Nuutoqaq/Nuuk Lokalmuseum – Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape/exhibit and workshop - Nuuk, Greenland
2020 - Peary/Macmillan Arctic Museum – Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape - Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
2019 – Arctic Circle Residency - participated in art residency exploring impact of climate change, sailing the coasts of the Svalbard Archipelago
2019 – Sunderland Library - Valtos/Landscape and Language - new work from Scotland’s Outer Hebrides - Sunderland, Massachusetts
2018 – Hitchcock Center for the Environment - Melting Ice, Rising Seas - Amherst, Massachusetts
2018 – Narsaq Museum - Qamutit: Portraits in the Landscape - Narsaq, Greenland
2018 – Explorer's Club Polar Film Exhibit - QAQQAQ: a portrait of Uummannaq Mountain - New York City
2017 – Uummannaq Museum - QAQQAQ: a portrait of Uummannaq Mountain - Uummannaq, Grteenland
2017 – Taste of Science Festival - Akunnaaq: The Place in Between - recent Greenlandic work - New York City, NY
2016 – RhueArt Gallery - Greenland: At the Margins - (see below under 2015 for installation description) - Ullapool, Scotland
2016 – Moray Art Centre - Greenland: At the Margins - Inverness, Scotland
2015 – Greenland: At the Margins – 2 person collaboration, with artist Jane Rushton, that traveled to 3 major cultural centers on the Western coast of Greenland – Ilulissat Kunstmuseum, Ilulissat; Nuuk Kunstmseum, Nuuk; Taseralik Cultural Center, Sisimiut; Greenlandic Hus, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014 – Greenlandic Hus – Greenland: At the Margins – 2 person show focused on impressions of Greenland’s changing coastline – Copenhagen, Denmark
2012 – Penn State College – Permanent Installation - Art and Science Collaboration – Reading Pennsylvania, USA
2011 – Queen’s Hall - Permanent installation following Edinburgh Fringe Festival – Atlas Novus – Edinburgh, Scotland
2010 – Stornoway Trust Nature Centre – permanent installation – Isle of Lewis, Scotland
2009 – Bernera Historical Museum –Textures of an Island - to benefit the Bernera Museum– Isle of Bernera, Scotland
2008 – Kirkland & Ellis Gallery – Stone and Bronze –2 person show– New York City, New York
2008 – Stornoway Airport – Permanent Installation Part 2 – For the Telling – Departure Hall – Isle of Lewis, Scotland
2008 – Canongate Kirk - Permanent Installation following Edinburgh Fringe Festival – Vanishing Views - Edinburgh, Scotland
2008 – Pearson Educación Argentina- Tiera del Fuego/ Stone and Sea –solo exhibit - Buenos Aires, Argentina
2007 – Stornoway Airport– Permanent Installation Part 1 – Circling the Stones – Arrivals Hall – Outer Hebrides, Scotland
2007 – Ceres Gallery – Recent Excavations – solo exhibit – New York City, New York
2007 – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church– Anonymous Pilgrims of Chartres – Permanent Installation – Brooklyn, New York
2007 – Pearson Plc. Corporate Offices – small works– White Plains, New York
2006 – AtticSalt Gallery – Hebridean Works – Edinburgh, Scotland
2006 – Krasdale Gallery – New works – New York City , New York
2006 – Cathedral of St. John Divine – Anonymous Pilgrims of Chartres – installation – New York City, New York
2006 - Ceres Gallery - Square Show – New York City, New York
2005 - Annual JFS Juried Show – Edison, New Jersey
2005 – New York Inter-church Center Gallery – Signs and Surfaces – solo exhibit – New York City, New York
2004 – Ceres Gallery – Meridians: Scotland’s Outer Hebrides - solo exhibit – New York City, New York
2004 – Ceres Gallery - Constellation Group Show – New York City, New York
2003 – Callanish Visitor Center Gallery – New Work – Isle of Lewis, Scotland
1997 - New York Bookbuilders Design Show – Silver – New York City, New York
1995 - Museum of Women’s History Installation - Cooperstown, NY