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Dhaka Art Summit

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Dhaka Art Summit

DAS is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture rel It is non commercial and free for all.

The Dhaka Art Summit is the world's largest research and exhibition platform for art from South Asia, now entering its 6th edition from Feb 3-11, 2023.

30/09/2026

We are pleased to see our partnership with the Ashmolean featured by the BBC, highlighting a new long-term initiative to support contemporary Bangladeshi art through an annual visiting artist programme and the development of a dedicated collection.

The first artist in residence, Munem Wasif, is currently in Oxford, engaging with the Museum’s collections and archives as part of his two-week residency. The partnership has also supported the acquisition of a work by Ashfika Rahman, adding contemporary Bangladeshi art to the Museum’s collection.

Read the full feature via BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8y5zxwqv4lvo?app-referrer=deep-link&fbclid=IwY2xjawUpnDRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR6Jyz3P5qFdJLsz2t_lds476klX2TGo9xejpdvNU-sawXZ-HhdoJgJmrEx6uA_aem_dNGWG8j1znBXYJvz9PF8qA

19/09/2026

We congratulate Nada Raza, curator of The Missing One at Dhaka Art Summit 2016, on her appointment as one of the Lead Curators of the third Islamic Arts Biennale, opening in Jeddah in November 2027.

Nada’s curatorial practice has long explored connections between South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, and we are pleased to see her return to the Islamic Arts Biennale in this new role.

The appointment also continues a connection with the Biennale that has been meaningful to us. For its 2023 edition, Samdani Art Foundation supported the transportation of Kamruzzaman Shadhin’s The River Remembers, commissioned by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation.

We look forward to following Nada’s work with the 2027 edition and to seeing how these conversations continue to develop across the region.

Image 1&4: The Missing One at OCA, 2016, Norway
Image 2&3: The Missing One at DAS 2016, Bangladesh

17/09/2026

Now published on e-flux

Exhibiting at the Kunsthalle Basel on November 28, the upcoming exhibition titled, “Far Reach” unites eight Samdani Art Award finalists from Bangladesh with sixteen artists from the Basel Regionale. We express our warmest congratulations to the selected finalists. It is an honor to foster this cross-cultural dialogue, celebrating contemporary practices that beautifully transcend geographical boundaries.

The exhibition is jointly curated by Founding Artistic Director of Samdani Art Foundation, and .rtf Mohamed Almusibli, Director and Chief Curator of Kunsthalle Basel, with .kvs Yana Kadykova, Curatorial Assistant, Kunsthalle Basel; Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury, Curator, Samdani Art Foundation; and Swilin Haque Swilin Haque, Curatorial Assistant, Samdani Art Foundation.

10/07/2026

Questions on how to apply for this year’s Samdani Art Award? We have a special online session this Sunday with one of our previous Shortlisted Artists for the Samdani Art Award!

Ashfika Rahman is a Bangladesh-based visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans photography, text, textile, sound, video, and installation. Her work is deeply rooted in long-term research and close collaboration with communities, amplifying voices often excluded from dominant histories.

Rahman is the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize (2023–24), a finalist of the Samdani Art Award (2018-2023), and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2022). She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited internationally at leading institutions including Palais de Tokyo, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Alserkal Avenue, F3 – Freiraum für Fotografie, Format Festival, and many others.
He work is part of the STILL JOY, the Pinchuk Art Centre’s collateral event in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale).

Register by filling out this form https://forms.gle/2W55xPw6WwpSm6D86

Registration ends at 6:50pm Sunday!

Photo Credit: Asish Palei

26/06/2026

Our Artistic Director, Diana Campbell, joined Istanbul Conversations, hosted by our long-term partner SAHA, for the panel "Rethinking Biennials." Moderated by Juha Huuskonen (Frame Finland), the conversation also featured Nawar Al Qasimi (Sharjah Art Foundation) and Cecilie C. Ragnheiðardóttir Gaihede (Icelandic Art Center). Together, the panel reflected on how biennials can move beyond extractive models toward slower, more reciprocal, and care-based approaches to collaboration, ecological responsibility, and knowledge exchange.

These conversations have been central to the evolution of Dhaka Art Summit over the past decade, including through initiatives such as Srijan Abartan, a long-term research and exchange programme by Samdani Art Foundation developed in collaboration with common interest and Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. We are grateful to all the participating artists, curators, researchers, and partner institutions whose generosity and collaboration have helped shape this ongoing work.

As a member of SAHA's Advisory Board, Diana values the opportunity to contribute to the organization's ongoing work. We greatly admire SAHA's commitment to supporting Turkish contemporary artists and fostering international exchange, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration.

18/06/2026

Today, we are proud to celebrate our Artistic Director, Diana Campbell, as she received her Art Basel Awards 2026 honor in the Curator category.

This well-deserved honor celebrates her exceptional curatorial vision, commitment to artists, and dedication to fostering meaningful cultural dialogue across borders. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Diana on this remarkable achievement and are delighted to see her contributions recognized on a global stage.

17/06/2026

Do we need another art award?

In a thoughtful article for The Art Newspaper, Oliver Basciano explores a question that resonates across the cultural sector: how can art awards create meaningful value in a field where artistic practice is inherently subjective and difficult to compare?

Bringing together perspectives from artists, curators, and arts professionals, the article considers both the tensions and possibilities of prize culture, examining how awards can support visibility, foster dialogue, and strengthen cultural ecosystems.

Reflecting on the evolution of the Samdani Art Award since its founding in 2012, our Artistic Director Diana Campbell discusses how the award has grown beyond a prize into “a research tool and a gift to the field,” supporting emerging Bangladeshi artists through visibility, exchange, and long-term opportunities.

The article highlights the growing international presence of a generation of Bangladeshi artists, including Soma Surovi Jannat, winner of the 2020 Samdani Art Award and currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, as well as Ashfika Rahman, whose career has continued to flourish internationally. Through these examples, the article considers how the impact of an award can extend far beyond the moment of recognition.

To read the full article, please check bio link.

14/05/2026

We are pleased to share that Tondra artist and long-term DAS collaborator Kamruzzaman Shadhin is participating in the Spring Residency 2026 at Delfina Foundation under the theme Making and Materiality. His inclusion reflects the continued international engagement of a practice grounded in process, labour, and the transformation of locally rooted materials.

Samdani Art Foundation, a long-term institutional partner of the Delfina Foundation, is supporting this residency as part of its continued commitment to creating opportunities for artists to engage with international platforms.

11/05/2026

Congratulations to DAS 2023 collaborator Miet Warlop, curator Caroline Dumalin, MORPHO, Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Miet Warlop/Irene Wool, KASK & ArBA-EsA, and all contributing artists, performers, collaborators, partners and production teams on the presentation of IT NEVER SSST at the Venice Biennale 2026, recently recognised by The New York Times in its feature “7 Pavilions That Have the Venice Biennale Buzzing.”

Bangla language is the “minor key” from which the other languages emerged after its initial presentation at DAS 2023, as part of its current presentation at the Venice Biennale. In the image shared by The New York Times, it appears alongside Greek, Italian, French, and English, where it remains a grounding presence within the work’s multilingual field.

Blurring the boundaries between performance, sculpture, sound, and choreography, Warlop’s immersive installation transforms the Belgian pavilion into a vivid and constantly shifting environment charged with movement, tension, and theatricality. The work’s energetic rhythm and striking visual language have made it one of the standout presentations of this year’s Biennale.

Beginning with the repeated sound of “ssst” — a gesture of silence, tension, and restraint, the work gradually unfolds into a multitude of voices, languages, and emotional expressions carried through bodies in motion. Oscillating between concert, performance, and living sculpture, IT NEVER SSST becomes a continuously evolving space of transformation and collective experience.

Image 4-6: Sjoerd Tanghe
Image 7: Reinout Hiel

11/05/2026

We are delighted to see Tondra artist and DAS collaborator Ashfika Rahman’s "Than Para- No Land Without Us" features in imagery accompanying The New York Times’s recent article “6 Must-See Venice Shows,” highlighting one of the standout presentations of this year’s Venice Biennale.

Presented as part of STILL JOY, the Pinchuk Art Centre’s collateral event, the work draws deeply from the lived realities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh-- home to 11 Indigenous ethnic communities and a long-contested, conflict-affected region shaped by ongoing displacement linked to development and land appropriation. In response to the precarity faced by communities, many of whom remain without formal national identity documentation, Ashfika Rahman brings together 4,849 brass temple bells, each carrying thumbprints collected from Indigenous participants, and interwoven with delicate strands of golden silk.

Within this gesture, the act of fingerprinting becomes both testimony and assertion, an affirmation of presence, belonging, and identity. Drawing on the symbolic resonance of bells in Buddhist and Hindu traditions, where their sound is used to call attention to the divine, the installation transforms them into a collective invocation: a shimmering call for recognition, visibility, and spatial justice.
It is meaningful to see this work resonate with audiences on such an important international platform and gain visibility within the wider discourse of the Venice Biennale.

Congratulations to Ashfika () on this significant moment.

Image 2-4: Courtey of Pinchuk Art Centre

Address

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 14/3 Segunbagicha, Ramna
Dhaka
1000

Opening Hours

Monday	10:00 - 18:00
Tuesday	10:00 - 18:00
Wednesday	10:00 - 18:00
Thursday	10:00 - 18:00
Saturday	10:00 - 18:00
Sunday	10:00 - 18:00

Telephone

+8802 8878784-7

Website

http://www.dhakaartsummit.org/

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