(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Puffin Cultural Forum presents Light Has Its Own Time, a major retrospective exhibition celebrating more than four decades of work by multidisciplinary artist Rachel Banai. On view from June 27 through July 31, 2026, the exhibition brings together photographs, Polaroid transfers, photo-weavings, collages, and mixed-media works from twelve thematic series created between 1985 and 2025.
Spanning forty years of artistic practice, Light Has Its Own Time traces Banai's creative journey across Israel, the United States, China, Puerto Rico, and beyond. Through portraits, landscapes, botanical studies, environmental observations, and cultural documentation, the exhibition examines themes of identity, migration, memory, community, and humanity's evolving relationship with the natural world.
Known for her innovative use of Polaroid transfer, emulsion lifting, photo-weaving, collage, and hand-altered photographic processes, Banai transforms photographs into richly textured works that blur the boundaries between photography, painting, and sculpture. Her work invites viewers to look closely at the connections between people, place, and time while exploring the resilience and beauty found in both human and natural systems.
Rachel Banai has exhibited internationally in more than fifty solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Israel, Russia, China, and Germany. A graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York City, she has received recognition from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has inspired generations of artists through her work as an educator and mentor.
Featuring works created over four decades, Light Has Its Own Time offers audiences a rare opportunity to experience Banai's artistic vision in a single exhibition.
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 27, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Puffin Cultural Forum (20 Puffin Way) in Teaneck, New Jersey. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, and guests will have the opportunity to meet the artist and participate in a discussion about her work. RSVP to [email protected].
The Puffin Cultural Forum, a project of The Puffin Foundation Ltd., is a gallery and performance space located at the site of the Foundation's administrative offices in Teaneck, New Jersey. Our work takes place at the intersection of the arts and the struggle for human rights as we seek to realize, in our local community, the Foundation's governing motto: "...continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people."
