ARTIST STATEMENT / BIO
I work with everyday subject matter such as flowers and figures. Evoking a sense of movement and ephemerality through fluid lines and visible brushstrokes, I aim to carry the spontaneity of drawing into the painting process. My work is informed by histories of baroque painting, medieval marginal art, and modern abstraction.
My photographs depict personal, diaristic subject matter and are titled according to the date on which they were taken. Implicit in many of them is the replacement or burial of figurative elements through recurring motifs of shadow, blur, transparency, and reflection.
My practice also extends beyond the studio; in recent years I have collaborated with musicians, scholars, and other artists, led public tours as a docent at the Met Museum, and published writings on both contemporary art and art history.
I was born in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, and grew up between Dhaka and Maine. I completed my MFA in Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts in 2014, and currently live in Oakland, California with my spouse - musician Michele Kennedy - and our baby daughter.
CV
Roman de Fauvel, performed by Concordian Dawn 2024
Artistic collaborator
Bay Area, California
Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera, by Sarah Kay 2022
Artistic collaborator
Cornell University Press
Sita Ram's Hybrid Paintings of Nineteenth-Century India December 2021
Co-author with Abu Kalam Shamsuddin
Journal of the Asiatic Society, Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Listeners, by Ernesto Pujol June 2019
Performer
River to River Performance Festival, New York, NY
Museum Highlights Tour: Crossings May 2016 to June 2018
Docent
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Remede de Fortune, performed by Concordian Dawn May 2018
Artistic collaborator
The Graduate Center, New York, NY
Please Disturb February 2017
Group show curated by David Ross
Midtown Hilton, New York, NY
Material Transformation in Medieval Manuscripts March 2016
Presenter at Early Modern Colloquium
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
The Ape as a Metaphor for Art: Stowe MS 17 March 2016
Presenter at 8th Annual Medievalists@Penn Conference
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Sign of the Ape September 2014
Graduate Thesis
Morgan Library Reference Collection, New York, NY
The Monkey Codex August 2014
Solo Exhibition
Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY
Community Board August 2014
Group show curated by Jovana Stokic
Glasshouse Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
Time After Us, by Ernesto Pujol October 2013
Performer
St Paul’s Chapel, New York, NY
Ecstasy/Apocalypse August 2013
Group show curated by Thyrza Nichols Goodeve
SVA Gallery, New York, NY
Current Practice July 2013
Group show curated by Hesse McGraw
Invisible Dog Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Remnant June 2010
Solo exhibition curated by Elizabeth Laribee
Yellow Wall Gallery, Harrisburg, PA