Born 1991, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Pronoun: They / Them

Education

2020 MFA, Performance Department, The School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, IL, USA (Recipients of full merit scholarship)

2020 Museum Education Graduate Scholar Program, Learning and Public
Engagement Department, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum, IL, USA
(Recipients of full merit scholarship)

2019 Northwestern Summer Institute in Performance Studies, Northwestern

University, IL, USA. (Recipients of full merit scholarship)

2013 BFA, Print Making Department, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka,

Dhaka, Bangladesh

2013-14 Global Exchange Student, Studio Art, Millikin University, Decatur, IL, USA

Awards, Scholarships & Fellowships
2021 Bridge Art Space Studio Award, Two Tree Management & Artistic Freedom

Initiative-AFI, Dumbo, Brooklyn, NYC.

2020 Humanities and Arts Research (SCHARP) Award, UConn Asian and Asian

American Studies Institute, University of Connecticut, USA.
Student Leadership Award – for excellence in student leadership as a
graduating MFA student, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
IL, USA.

2019-21 Lucas Artist Fellowship in Visual Art, Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga,

California, USA.

2019 Graduate Professional Development Award, Graduate Deans Office, The

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA.
Ox-Bow Winter & Summer Merit Scholarships, Ox-Bow School of Art and
Artist Residency, Saugatuck, Michigan, USA.

2018 New Artist Society Full Merit Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of

Chicago, IL, USA.

2016-17 Artist Protection Fund (APF) Fellowship, Institute of International Education (IIE),

NYC, NY, USA.

2013-14 Near East and South Asia (NESA) Undergraduate Student Exchange Scholarship,

US State Department.

2011 Media Best Award, Annual Art Exhibition, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of

Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2010 Dhaka University Alumni Association Merit Scholarship, University of Dhaka,

Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Artist-In-Residencies, Festivals & Art Camps
2022 Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, University of Connecticut, USA
2022 Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, California, USA.
2019 Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, Saugatuck, Michigan, USA.
2017 Artist-in-Residence, DFBRL8R Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA.
Printmaking Studio Residency, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Maine, USA.
2016 -17 Artist-in-Residence, IMRC Center, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
2016 Kolkata International Performance Art Festival 2016, Kolkata, India.
2015 URONTO Residential Art Exchange Program, Lakutiya, Barisal, Bangladesh.
2014 Crack International Art Camp, Kushtiya, Bangladesh.

Solo Exhibitions & Performances
2019 Roopbaan Reimagined: A Drag queen From the Future, Solo Performance, Asian Art

Initiative, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
A Private View, Solo Exhibition & Performance, Amazigh Contemporary, Chicago,
IL, USA.

2018 Exile Series = Rising Sadness, Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada.
2017 No One Home, Solo Performance, Waterfall Arts & Barn Arts Collective, Maine.
2016 Shameless, Solo Performance Art Project, EMK Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Inside the Zone, Outside your Conscience, Performance Pavilion, Dhaka Art Summit.

2015 Solo Watercolor Show, Café M, Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Public & Site-Specific Art Projects
2021 Satellite Art Show, Performance is alive during the Art Basel Week,

South Beach, Miami, FL (Upcoming)
Red Honeymoon, Chasama NY, Seaport District, Manhattan, NYC
Breaking Bread Together, Community workshop and dinner, Dumbo, BK
2020 Refugee Kitchen, Zero Waste Food Art project, Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka,

Bangladesh (Online Project)

2019 Commune-In-Action, A Site-Specific Participatory Performance Conference,
President’s Conference Room, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Stand Firm, Stand Here, A Site-Specific Installation Curated by Pia Sing
Ohklahoma, Chicago, IL

2018 Gross Domestic Product, A Site-Specific Curated Evening, Orono, Maine, USA.
2015 – 16 Shonglap – A public performance art event, Back Art Foundatio,Dhaka
2015 Performance Open House, Samdani Seminar, organized by Samdani
Art Foundation, Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy, Dhaka

2014 Urban Hour- Public Art Project, organized by Back Art Foundation, Rose Garden,

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Destination Unknown: Climate, Life & Behavior – A Public Art Project, Dhaka
2012 Urban religion & reality, A public art project, Urban Youth festival, Goethe Institute,

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Group Exhibitions
2021 Far Plans, A Rook’s Gallery, Washington DC
2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition, SAIC Show, Chicago, USA (Postponed)
What Remains is Memory, Nottingham Arts Mela (Online Exhibition)

2018 Performance Event, No Nation Art lab, Chicago, USA
Social Muscles Club, DFBRL8R Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Abandoned Practice, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
2017 7a*md8 live stream performance series, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada
Judgement Day Performance, Bullet Space, Lower East Side, NYC, USA
Othered Everywhere, DFBRL8R Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Naked People Reading, Space Gallery, Portland, ME, USA
Vehicle Relocation Program, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY & Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, USA.

2016 CENTIPEDE: Performance Art Series, Jack, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Noise/Touch, The Boston Center for Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.
Performance Forum, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn,
NY, USA
ERROR, Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2015 Only Connect – Edition 3, Bengal Foundation, Daily Star- Bengal Arts Precinct,

Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2014 Urban Experience, Bengal Art Lounge, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

SEA Juried Art Show, Lisle, Chicago, IL, USA

2012 15th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Voice of Time-2, IAC (Institute of Art and Culture), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Artist Lecture, Talks and Panel Presentations
2022 Rethinking Freedom, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
2021

2020

Rethinking Freedom, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
Rethinking Freedom: The Intersection Between Gender/Sexual Marginality
& Other Systematic Oppressions, Canada Bangladesh Social Justice Research
Alliance (Online Event)
Between land and Territories: Love, Loss and Survival. Maplewood Library,
Maplewood, NJ
Rethinking Freedom, Loyola Marymount University, LA, CA (online Event)
Finding Queer Radicality in Asian Art, Asian Creative Collective, NY
Can Empathy Create Social Justice, Menka Bangladesh (Online Event)
Queer Migration and Visual Narratives, CLAGS- Center for LGBTQ Studies,
The Graduate Center, City University of NY (Online Panel)
Queer Art and Artist, MONDRO LGBTQ Archive, Bangladesh (Webner)
Unknown Territories, Minsk, Belarus (Online Event)
Zero Waste – FoodArt Talk, Dhaka Bangladesh (Online Event)

2019 Utmost Failure, Graduate Lecture, The LeRoy Neiman Center, The School of the Art

Institute of Chicago, IL, USA.
In-between Lands and Territories: Love, Loss and Survival, Subir and Malini
Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, University of California
Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.
Friendship as Social Justice Activism, Panel Presentation, Bluestocking
Bookstore, Lower East Side, NYC, USA.

2018 Roopbaan, Panel Presentation, Channing Murray Hall, University of Illinois

Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Displacement & Belonging, artist talk and panel discussion, Alphabet City,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

2017 Sex, Terror and Nation State, Panel Discussion, University of Connecticut, USA
Portraying Gay Male Life Today, Panel Discussion, Green Space, NYC, USA
Global Gay Cabaret, Panel Discussion, Bronx Center for the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA
Gender, Power, Sex, Panel Discussion, Dixon Place, NYC, USA
Visiting Artist Lecture, IMRC Center, University of Maine, Maine, USA.
2016 Talkative: A Performance Art Conversation Series, Queens Museum, NY
Body Workshop with the Intermedia MFA Students, University of Maine, Orono,
Maine, USA.
SHAME, GENDER and EROTICA, Performative Presentation. IMRC Center,
University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
SLSA- Society of Literature, Science and Arts Annual Conference”, Atlanta
2016-15 Art Healing – Community Art Session, Roopbaan LGBTQ+ Youth Conference,

Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Article, Review & Interview
2020 Emergency Index, An annual document of performance practice,

9
th Edition, Ugly Duckling Press, NY.

2019 Rothbart, Brad. “Asian Art Initiave Present Ali Asgar’s Roobbaan
Reimagined”, Broad Street Review (November 12,2019)

2018 Black Flash Magazine, Published Performance Images, 2018 Lens based

Time Based issue.
Featured Artist Interview, Voyage Chicago (June 2018)
McCann, Alex. “They were forced to flee their native Bangladesh”,
Pittsburg City Paper (June 27,2018)

2017 Emergency Index Vol -6, An annual document of performance practice.
Akimbo Hit list, 5 current Interest. Akimb.ca (December 17, 2017)
Tim, Teeman. My Gay Friend Were Hacked to Death in, I Escaped;
The Daily Beast (October10,2017)
Made in USA: Ali Asgar, by Nova Radio, Audio Interview (June,2017)
Uteuova, Aliya. “Umaine Hosts “Shameless” Ali Asgar at
IMRC”,The Maine Campus (February 5,2017)
Rahman, Sharmillie “Performing the Shameless”, Depart
Magazine, 21st Issue (October,2017)
Amin, Seema “Only Connect: the third edition”, Depart Magazine,21issue.

2016 Exhibition Catalog, Dhaka Art Summit 2016

Ibrahim, Ahmed. “Class Act at Dhaka Art Summit”, Daily Dhaka Tribune

(February 9,2016)
Ibrahim, Ahmed. “In search of the new shades of Human Condition”,
The Daily Star, (February 13,2016)
Arman, Sadia. “Emerging Culture of Artist as an Activist”,
The New Age Bangladesh (March21,2016)
Yau, Elise. “A Complete Guide to Dhaka Art Summit 2016”, COBO
Social (February5,2016)
Dashgupa, Kurchi. “Dhaka Art Summit Review”, Frieze Art Magazine
(April 4,2016)
Der boom der Bastis, Der Tagesspiegel (February 5,2016)
Hans Ulrich Obrist. “DAS WOUNDER VON Dhaka”, Le Arte
(October,2016)
Rahman, Sharmillie “Shaming Shame”, Exhibition Brochure.
2015 Urban Youth, Exhibition Catalog by Goethe Institute Bangladesh.

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  PRAF presents: what cannot otherwise be said  | Zeenat Nagree

  August 16, 2022 - July 19, 2022