A weekly (not always) series to share my art discovery with work that caught my eye...
Ayesha Sultana, Untitled (Fragments) , gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 2016
This weekend, I was reading an article about the lastest Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), held in February in Dhaka, and also about the evolution of art in Bangladesh and in the South Asia. First, I discovered that Louis Kahn had a great influence on the architecture of the city thanks to his student Muzharul Islam who collaborated with him for some projects :
- Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College,
- Hospital, Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban...
Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban (photo, Wiki)
Kamalapur Railway Station
But it's not the purpose of this post... This article begins with a description of the work of the artist, Ayesha Sultana, for the DAS, with a series of found photographs, Threshold, scratched and exposed to the sun to evoke the effects of climate, time and human activity upon the nature, architecture. By curiosity, I went to visit her website, and the first glimpse of her work was on paper about her series Untitled (Fragments). And I liked the geometric shapes and the colors, just enough to want to know more about her work.
WHO
Born in Jessore (Bangladesh), in 1984, Ayesha Sultana studied at the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore where she obtained her BFA in Visual Arts in 2007 and Post Graduate Diploma in Art Educationthe the following year. Now, she's based in Dhaka with growing international career thanks to her award in 2014 by the Samdani Art Foundation.
Wave I, graphite on folded paper, 33 x 66 cm, 2014
Her work is constanly evolving using different mediums and techniques. At first, she drew only with graphite (like Wave I) exploring the rich variety of greys; and now in her last exhibition, there are installations (Paper). She is a member of the Dhaka based artist run organization, Britto Arts Trust, non-profit network for the promotion of Bangladeshi artists.
WHAT
Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) takes place every two years in Dhaka, the last in February, thanks to the Samdani Art Foundation in ordrer to promote art and architecture in South Asia. As part of the exhibition Planetary Planning, Ayesha Sultana presented her series Thresold.
Part of the exhibition, Planetary Planning during the Dhaka Art Summit 2018
In 2017, Ayesha Sultana had a solo exhibition (her second), Making Visible with Experimenter, Indian gallery in Kolkata, a meditation on the aesthetics of silence as she explained it in an interview with Vogue India in 2017
It was about "the relationship between movement and stability, form and structure, rhythm and repetition." - Ayesha Sultana, Vogue India 2017
Pool IV', glass, silicone and paint, 2016-17
For her last exhibition, in New-York, at Bridget Donahue CONDO New York: Experimenter (June 29–July 28 2018). The gallery hosts Experimenter, for an exhibition of works by Bangladeshi artists with Kanishka Raja, Rathin Barman, Sahil Naik and Ayesha Sultana. We retrieve her work about geometric shapes and spatial structures.
Form Studies VIII, watercolor on paper, 2017.
A world to explore...
Sources
Ayesha Sultana
Dhaka Art Summit (DAS)
Samdani Art Foundation
Britto Arts Trust
Bridget Donahue
Futur Artist 2015, Art Review
Article Vogue India, 2017
On Wiki :
Old Post Eye of Art
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