ACC's 55th Anniversary Gala

'Alluvial Belief' by Kalidas Karmakar

To celebrate the 55th anniversary of Asian Cultural Council (ACC), a gala night will take place today in New York. ACC will honour its 2017 JDR 3rd Award recipient, Shen Wei (Dance, 1995) and two of ACC's most steadfast advocates, David and Susan Rockefeller. The event, chaired by Wendy O'Neill and Mercedes Zobel, is as much recognition of ACC's longstanding commitment to promoting cultural exchange as it is a celebration of ACC's global community of alumni and friends. While ACC provides the resources, network, and programmatic planning that facilitates immersive cultural exchange, it is our fellows who live out ACC's mission of strengthening international dialogue, understanding, and respecting both during their fellowship and long into the future. Celebrating this amazing community, the night will feature performances by four ACC alumni--Susie Ibarra (Music), Kalidas Karmakar (Visual Art), Nina Kuo (Visual Art), and Yasuno Miyauchi (Music). Among them, Kalidas Karmakar will represent Bangladesh in New York. He is the representative of contemporary visual artists of South Asia as well.

“New York is called the Mecca of Contemporary Art. It is my great honour and pride to represent Bangladesh in the city. I will participate in it with a 55-minute Action Paintings Performance to celebrate ACC's 55th year,” said an elated Kalidas Karmakar over phone to The Daily Star. “I love doing action paintings while listening to traditional music of Bangladesh. This time, there was no exception. The proceeds will go to a philanthropic cause.”

Kalidas Karmakar is one of Bangladesh's most recognised contemporary artists. Trained at what was then the East Pakistan College of Arts and Crafts (currently University of Dhaka's Faculty of Fine Art) and at the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta, he began his artistic journey in the early 1970s. His diverse body of work features found objects, handmade paper, oil on canvas prints and many more. They have been widely exhibited throughout South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. In 2006, he received an ACC Fellowship to participate in a residency at the PointB Worklodge in Brooklyn.