Samdani Art Award announces 11 finalists
The Samdani Art Foundation has announced the finalists for the next year's Samdani Art Award, which will be given out at the Dhaka Art Summit in February 2018. The Samdani Art Award is Bangladesh's premier art award, and aims to support, promote and highlight Bangladeshi contemporary art. This bi-annual award will be given to a talented emerging artist from Bangladesh between the ages of 22 and 40.
The award, partnering with The Delfina Foundation since 2013, is offering the winner a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in London. A residency at the Delfina Foundation can be a career-defining moment for an artist to develop their ideas, sharpen their practice, and widen their networks.
The finalists were culled from a larger pool of semi-finalists and were chosen by Swiss Institute director Simon Castets, who will curate a show with all of the eleven finalists during the Dhaka Art Summit. From this pool, the final winner will be selected by a board chaired by Delfina Foundation director Aaron Cezar and consisted of artists Sheela Gowda, Runa Islam, Subodh Gupta, and Mona Hatoum.
The exhibition, curated by Castets, will be up for the entirety of the biennial summit, scheduled for February 8-10 of next year. Each of the finalists' works will be featured prominently at the Dhaka Art Summit.
The full list of finalists is Ahmed Rasel (b.1988, Barisal), Aprita Singh Lopa (b. 1986, Kishoreganj), Asfika Rahman (b. 1988, Dhaka), Debasish Shom (b. 1979, Bagerhat), Marzia Farhana (b. 1985, Dhaka), Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury (b. 1981, Noakhali), Opper Zaman (b. 1995, Dhaka), Palash Bhattacharjee (b. 1983, Chittagong), Rakib Ahmed (b. 1988, Netrakona), Reetu A. Sattar (b. 1981, Dhaka) and Sabbir Alam (b. 1982, Kushtia).
Samdani Art Foundation was founded in 2011 by collectors Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, and is headed up by artistic director and curator Diana Campbell Betancourt. The 2016 Samdani Art Award was curated by Daniel Baumann and the winner was Rasel Choudhary. In 2014 Ayesha Sultana was the Samdani Art Award winner and in 2012 the winners were Khaled Hasan and Musarrat Reazi.
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