Dhaka Art Summit


Dhaka Art Summit is an art summit held in Dhaka, Bangladesh and is organised by Samdani Art Foundation, a non- profit art infrastructure development organisation founded by Nadia Samdani. and Rajeeb Samdani in 2011. The summit displays artworks such as paintings, photography, sculptures, installations, digital art, video art, etc.
TitleDateDirectorArtistsVisitors
1st Dhaka Art Summit 201212–15 April 201220020,000
2nd Dhaka Art Summit 20147–9 February 2014Diana Campbell Betancourt25070,000
3rd Dhaka Art Summit 20165–8 February 2016Diana Campbell Betancourt300
4th Dhaka Art Summit 20182-10 February 2018Diana Campbell Betancourt350317,000
5th Dhaka Art Summit 20207-15 February 2020Diana Campbell Betancourt500

2012

The 1st edition of the Summit was held in collaboration with Shilpakala Academy and Bangladesh National Museum and showcased the works of 249 artists and 19 galleries. The 1st edition of the Summit focused only on the local artists and galleries. The Summit was visited over 40,000 visitors. The Summit also organised a few session of talks which was participated by a group of international and local art
Samdani Art Foundation also awarded the Samdani Artist Development Award to Khaled Hasan and Samdani Young Talent Award to Musrat Reazi at the closing ceremony of Dhaka Art Summit.
The award was judged by a panel of international judges that consisted of Kyla McDonald, Assistant Curator from Tate Modern Museum; Deepak Ananth, a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France; Elaine W. Ng, Editor and Publisher of Art Asia Pacific Magazine; Bose Krishnamachari, founder of Kochi Biennale; renowned artist Ravinder Reddy from India, and Paris-based Bangladeshi artist Shahabuddin Ahmed.

2014

The 2nd edition of Dhaka Art Summit took place in collaboration with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy from 7 to 9 February 2014. From its 2nd edition onwards, the Summit decided to focus on South Asia. DAS 2014 featured a wide range of programmes including five curatorial exhibitions by international and Bangladeshi curators, 14 solo art projects curated by the artistic director of the Samdani Foundation Diana Campbell Betancourt that celebrated artists from across South Asia. The summit featured a citywide public art project, performances, screening of experimental films, speaker's panel and participation of 15 Bangladeshi and 17 South Asia focused galleries.
The Samdani Art Award was also presented to a young Bangladeshi artist Ayesha Sultana, during the Dhaka Art Summit, the winner was selected by an international jury panel which was chaired by Aaron Cezar and included Adriano Pedrosa, Jessica Morgan, Sandhini Poddar and Pooja Sood. The winning artist received a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in the United Kingdom.

2016

The 3rd edition of Dhaka Art Summit was held from 5 to 8 February 2016 in Dhaka.
Seventeen Solo Projects, curated by Samdani Art Foundation Artistic Director Diana Campbell Betancourt, included thirteen newly commissioned works and three works reconfigured within the Bangladeshi context, reflecting the productive nature of DAS. The first DAS project commissioned by the Samdani Art Foundation, VIP Project by Po Po, was first unveiled at the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial, 2015 in Brisbane. The solo projects celebrated pluralism and looked at the fluid continuum of birth and experience in becoming an individual, book-ended by Lynda Benglis and Tino Sehgal and with Shumon Ahmed, Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, Simryn Gill, Waqas Khan, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Prabhavati Meppayil, Haroon Mirza, Amanullah Mojadidi, Sandeep Mukherjee, Po Po, Dayanita Singh, Ayesha Sultana and Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Munem Wasif and Mustafa Zaman.
This time in addition to new commissions and curated group exhibitions, DAS included talks, critical writing ensembles, performances, film programme, book launches and the Summit's first historical exhibition, Rewind and artists were Rashid Choudhury, Monika Correa, Germaine Krull, Nalini Malini, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Bagyi Aung Soe, and Lionel Wendt, among others. The Samdani Art Award finalists exhibition curated by Daniel Baumann ; The Missing One curated by Nada Raza and artists include Neha Choksi, Iftikhar Dadi, Shishir Bhattacharjee, Firoz Mahmud, Rohini Devasher, David Chalmers Alesworth, Mariam Suhail, Hajra Waheed, Himali Singh Soin among others. ; Architecture in Bangladesh curated by Aurelién Lemonier ; The Performance Pavilion Shifting Sands Shifting Hands, curated by Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore and Jana Prepeluh; Not as far as it seems, a series of conversations and sound pieces curated by Safina Radio Project; a Film Programme curated by Shanay Jhaveri ; as well as Critical Writing Ensemble, panel discussions and children workshop conducted by VAST Bhutan.
The winner of this year's Samdani Art Award is yound Bangladeshi Photographer Rasel Chowdhury. The jury panel consisted of Catherine David, Aaron Seeto, Cosmin Costinas, and Beatrix Ruf, chaired by Aaron Cezar. The award show was curated by Daniel Baumann, who is the Director of the Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland. The winning artist received a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in the United Kingdom.

2018

The 2008 Dhaka Art Summit took place from 2 to 10 February 2018.

2020

Dhaka Art Summit 2020 took place from 7–15 February 2020. Dhaka Art Summit 2020 was the most 'ambitious edition to date', presenting work by over 500 cross-disciplinary artists, scholars, curators, and thinkers.