INFO

Contact and biography

Omar Chowdhury (b. 1984, Dhaka) fabricates installations and moving image works staging ethical farces that subvert systems of authority. Luring audiences into plausible, beguiling worlds, his work eventually abandons them to cascading excess, slippage, and fragmentation. Multi-channel screens and sound, altered objects, and exhibition architecture are composed cinematically, drawing audiences through environments that destabilise their sense of coherence. He has recently presented at IFFR Tiger Competition (2025), Busan Biennale (2024), Contour Biennale 10 (2023), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and Annet Gelink Gallery. He attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He lives and works in Brussels and Dhaka.

Education & Fellowships

2018–19: Post-graduate residentRijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
2016–17: Post-academic laureateHoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent
2005: BCom/BSc, Industrial Relations and Information SystemsUniversity of New South Wales, Sydney

Selected Exhibitions & Screenings

2027*: master_slave (solo)Batalha Centre for Cinema, Porto
2027*: master_slave (solo)Netwerk, Aalst
2026: BAN♡ITSWillie, Amsterdam
2025: IdddddMartins&Montero, Brussels
2025: BAN♡ITS — New Cinema Award WinnerBerwick Film & Media Arts Festival
2025: BAN♡ITS — World Premiere, in competitionInternational Film Festival Rotterdam
2025: BAN♡ITSCalArts + USC + Diacritics Conference
2024: BAN♡ITSBusan Biennale
2024: Unconcealing SaturnHet Bos / Extra Academy, Antwerp
2023: Janus Tussle — Belgian premiereBeursschouwburg, Brussels
2023: IdddddContour Biennale 10, Mechelen
2023: Faydabad For-Sale (solo)Dhaka Art Summit collateral, Ke ba kahara
2022: Janus TussleTransforming Narratives Festival, Birmingham
2021: Echo, Saturn (II)—The Courts (solo)Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam
2020: Faydabad To-Let (solo)Faydabad, Dhaka
2020: What goes around: Building, guarding, protectingMajhi, Der Bogen, Berlin
2019: Echo, Saturn (I) (solo)Rijksakademie, Amsterdam
2019: Augustijn (three-channel) (solo)Netwerk, Aalst
2019: Augustijn — international premiereInternational Film Festival Rotterdam
2018: Echo, Saturn—PrologueRijksakademie, Amsterdam
2018: Augustijn (three-channel)Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2018: Unravelling Saturn: coping with para-fictionDe Appel, Amsterdam
2017: Trust in the unexpectedGovernor’s Mansion, Ghent
2017: Changing SpacesFilm and Video Umbrella, London
2016: The Colonies at DuskLes Rencontres International, Paris and Berlin
2016: APT8 — Pop IslamAsia Pacific Triennial 8, QAGOMA
2016: Works from Age of SaturnBengal Galleries, Dhaka Art Summit
2016: Archive Systems in the Neutral DistanceIndia Art Fair
2015: The Extreme of Love Is Just the Circumference of HorrorArt Gwangju
2015: To Not Believe in the Divine, Yet Always Aspire to Reach ItBus Projects, Melbourne
2014: Form as Being (solo)MOMENTUM, Berlin
2014: Ways (solo)4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
2014: Means (solo)ALASKA Projects, Sydney
2014: TorsionsDhaka Art Summit

Commissions & Awards & Grants

2024: Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds grantFlemish Government, Belgium
2023: Kunstendecreet grantFlemish Government, Belgium
2022: Audio-visual grantSTUK, Leuven
2021: Transforming Narratives commissionBritish Council
2020: NowOn grantPro Helvetia Switzerland
2019: Presentation Support GrantStichting Stokroos
2019: FellowshipRob Defares, Rijksakademie
2018: Residency supportAustralia Council for the Arts
2017: Skills and Development GrantAustralia Council for the Arts
2016: Cultural Trust GrantIan Potter Cultural Trust
2016: Blake Art Prize — TorsionsCasula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney
2015: Artist Production GrantBengal Foundation
2015: Blake Art Prize — Locus I+IIGalleries UNSW, Sydney
2014: Keir Foundation CommissionKeir Foundation
2014: Skills and Development GrantAustralia Council for the Arts
2014: John Fries Award — TorsionsGalleries UNSW, Sydney
2013: Career AwardCopyright Agency, Sydney
2013: Edward M. Kennedy GrantEMK Center, Dhaka

Media

2024: Historical Vertigo: Art, Censorship, and the Contested History of Bangladesh Lotte Hoek, Freedoms of Speech
2024: Seeing in the Dark: Busan Biennale Review Mark Rappolt, ArtReview
2024: Review of BAN♡ITS Haruko Kumakura, Glean 5
2022: Kunstenaar Omar Adnan Chowdhury houdt van ontregelen, zoveel is zeker Kees Keijer, Het Parool
2020: Ke ba kahara’s conceptual performance ‘Faydabad To-Let’ impresses Rasheek Tabassum Mondira, The Daily Star
2020: Faydabad To-Let: An architectural performance evoking modernist nostalgia Zahangir Alom, The Business Standard
2020: Faydabad To Let Bonik Barta
2019: ALIAS — de stadstentoonstelling van Netwerk Aalst Pieter Vermeulen, HART
2019: Alias in Aalst — Voor een alternatief burgerschap Tamara Beheydt, Metropolis M
2019: Bij de Open Studios van de Rijksakademie Merel Bem and Anna van Leeuwen, de Volkskrant
2019: Open Studios 2019 Puck Kroon, Mister Motley
2019: Rijksakademie Open Studios 2019: second opinion Sanneke Huisman, Metropolis M
2015: Interview with Omar Jane Somerville, Australian Art Collector
2015: Rhythm within form Nikki Lam, Peril
2014: Experiments with Faith and Form Nicholas Forrest, Blouin Artinfo
2014: A wilful disregard for convention Andrew Frost, The Guardian
2014: An Index of the Divine Murtaza Vali, Ways
2014: Interview with Omar Chowdhury Lucy Rees, ARTAND Australia
2014: Arts Review: WaysNaomi Gall, The AU Review
2014: Interview with Omar ChowdhuryNick Garner, Das Platforms
2014: Interview with Omar Chowdhury Linda Mottram, ABC 702 Sydney Mornings
2014: Means, ALASKA Projects Stella Rose, The Art Life
2014: Omar Chowdhury: Means Annie Murney, Concrete Playground

Residencies

2018: CSAV ResidencyAntonio Ratti Foundation, Como
2015: Eight-week residencyBengal Foundation, Dhaka
2014: Six-week residencyMOMENTUM, Berlin

Teaching

2024: LectureLUCA, Brussels
2024: LectureSint Lucas, Antwerp
2023: MA practice presentation and visitsSint Lucas, Antwerp
2020: MA studio instructionSint Lucas, Antwerp
2020: BA final juriesSint Lucas, Ghent