Farzana at (camp _18) Painting

Farzana Ahmed (2nd march 1980) is a Bangladeshi expressionist artist whose emotion-imbued portraiture is an exploration and exposition of the human condition through colour, form, and texture. Mostly, Ahmed works with acrylic on canvas but regularly experiments with vegetable dye, colored ink, and other mediums. She earned an MFA from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2010, and is currently based in Dhaka. Many of the themes Ahmed is exploring in her work currently are inspired by her work with the Rohingya women in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar where she was an artist-in-residence for the IOM Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre. In this role, Ahmed facilitated embroidery workshops for Rohingya women in which she guided the production of embroidery pieces exploring new subject matter and themes using a blend of traditional and innovative embroidery techniques. This experience, working with the Rohingya women and hearing their stories, deeply moved Ahmed; and her latest work is an exploration of their emotions as well as her own emotions following their interaction.