The foundation works with artists to create new works and supports various art practitioners through exhibitions, institutional collaborations, publications, and, since 2019, an artist residency programme. 

Operating in both Dhaka and Berlin, the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation provides a highway for cultural exchange between Asian and European art scenes and beyond.

Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation Artists

A core aim of Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation is to support artists who see the world in a different light and offer new ways to shape its future. This is reflected in the artists it works with.

Among these artists are Internationally celebrated Bangladeshi artists such as the master painter Shahabuddin Ahmed; Shambhu Acharya, known in Bangladesh and overseas for producing intricate traditional patachitra scroll painting; celebrated socio-politically-driven multimedia artist Kamruzzaman Shadhin; and feminist visual artist Dilara Begum Jolly.

Not limited to Bangladeshi talent, the foundation works with other international artists predominantly connected to the global south in practice or origins. Among them are New York-based Pakistani-American art duo Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi, whose diverse multimedia works explore themes of identity and globalisation; and Ghanaian multimedia artist and founder of the GoLokal performance collective in Ghana, Serge Attukwei.

The Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation also promotes work by earlier Bangladesh modernists such as the printmakers Mohammad Kibria, Rafiqun Nabi, and Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, and the sculptor, Novera Ahmed.

Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation Exhibitions and Art Fairs

Working collaboratively with various galleries and institutions including Lightbox group, Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, Museum Arnhem, and Bangladesh’s Gidree Bawlee Foundation of the Arts, the Durjoy Foundation supports many group and solo exhibitions of South Asian artists and artworks.

Many of these shows align with contemporary issues of culture, identity, gender, social justice, and the environment.

In July 2020, adapting to international circumstances and new technological opportunities, the Durjoy Foundation initiated the online project Future of Hope—an online collaborative exchange and subsequent exhibition bringing together Bangladeshi artists in cities under lockdown across the globe to examine the theme of pandemics in history and literature. 

While participating in such exhibitions and projects, the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation supports artistic innovation through the Majhi International Art Residency Programme initiated in 2019 in Venice.

The foundation also participates in major art events such as the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh Art Week, and the Venice Biennale.