Artist Firoz Mahmud nominated for France’s COAL Prize

Bangladeshi artist Firoz Mahmud is one of the ten nominees for France’s COAL Prize, from the organisation, Coalition for Art and Sustainable Development, which works in the fields of contemporary art, sustainable development and research, in order to promote the emergence of a culture of ecology. The award ceremony, along with the exhibition of artworks by the nominated artists, will take place at Center Pompidou, Paris, in December this year.

Photo: Courtesy

Mahmud, who currently resides in New York, was a fellow artist at Rijksakademie VB Kunsten, Amsterdam, and did his MFA and BFA from the Institute of Fine Arts, (Now Faculty of Fine Art) University of Dhaka. He had a solo exhibitions at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Dhaka Art Center, Abinta Gallery of Fine Arts, Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, Dhaka Art Summit and Bangladesh National Museum. He also exhibited his works at Aichi Triennial, Sharjah Biennale, Cairo Biennale, Echigo-Tsumari Triennial and Setouchi Triennial.

Mahmud has been creating paintings, installations, photo based artworks, drawings and mixed media works on paper. As an artist, he focuses on historical and colonial legacies, war and warriors, cultural and mythological landscapes from Bangladesh, the greater Bengal and South Asian region. Most of his works depict colonial and post-colonial legacies of our region, myths and beliefs. He also highlights the issues of exodus and migration, and the dreams of minority groups through his art.

Firoz Mahmud

“I deliberately tear down the edges of the canvas to shape the composition of my artworks, so that they signify the unrepresented historical legacies. The history of the migration of Bangladeshi people was the research topic during my two-year course at Rijksakademie VB Kunsten in the Netherlands,” said Mahmud

In recent years, the globally travelling artist has exhibited his artworks at many important exhibitions, including the Bangkok Art Biennale, Lahore Biennale, Congo Biennale, Dhaka Art Summit, Office of Contemporary Art Norway, Sharjah Art Foundation and MAXXI-National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, among others.

From making texts and concepts to producing the finished artworks, Mahmud is dedicated to his artistic pursuit and perseverance. Reflecting on the recent contemporary global art practice and the challenges, he spoke about New York- based Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. “The world of contemporary art is wild. Maurizio Cattelan, the controversial artist, made a fully functioning 18-carat gold toilet, titled America, which has not yet been recovered after it was stolen from an exhibition at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, UK, in September this year. Contemporary art allows many non-academic artists to make a mark. Such artists are doing well in selling their unusual ideas,” added Mahmud.