Renowned artist Farida Zaman has obtained international recognition participating in biennales and international exhibitions and competitions in different Asian and European countries. Many prestigious galleries across the globe have collected her works and many internationally reputed journals have published write-ups on her. She has also written articles on art in different foreign magazines.
In her long diverse career as an artist, Farida Zaman has always addressed the contemporary issues in her artworks, which has made her a topic for making documentaries on herself. Sabnam Ferdous’ documentary ‘Godhuli’ and Manzar-e-Hassin’s documentary ‘Water World’ are based on her biography.
In fact, water is one the issues for her recent paintings. Her recent works encompassed an array of contemporary subjects including water, weather, landscapes, figure and their interactions with time, space and colour.
“Human relations with the surroundings, relations of old- monuments with landscapes and climate change issue are getting dominance in my recent works, which will be displayed in my upcoming eighth solo painting exhibition,” said Farida Zaman in an interview with New Age.
Since 1979 she has exhibited a total of seven solo art shows. Her first solo exhibition was held at the then College of Arts and Crafts (Now Faculty of Fine Arts) in 1979 and her last solo show was held in Kolkata in the early 2010 in association with Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Bengal Foundation.
On her compositions, the painter told New Age, ‘I am not rigid on any particular subject. It is the time that leads me to select the subject for my paintings. And I always pay highest attention for fixing the space of canvases, experimentation on compositions and colour.’
The artist has participated around thirty prestigious group art exhibitions in abroad since mid seventies including Young Artist Art Exhibition at White Chapel Art Gallery in London, 5th Triennial International Art Exhibition in New Delhi, India, Asian Art Festival, at Fukuoka in Japan, Salon de Tokyo Art Exhibition at Tokyo in Japan, Contemporary Bangladesh Art Exhibition at Paris in France, Bussan Biennale, Republic of Korea and others.
Among those group exhibition cum competitions, Zaman still could proudly remember the ‘Commendable Award’ conferred on her at the fifth Triennial International Art Exhibition held at New Delhi in India in 1982 for series work titled ‘Fishing Net’ done on oil medium when she was a newly recruited lecturer at the department.
She secured first prize in Painting at Baroda University, India in 1977 and International Life Membership Award from ‘Salon de Tokyo’, in Japan in 1988 and others.
‘In the Beijing Olympic in 2008, I was awarded as the ‘Excellent Artist of the World -Award’ for a figurative painting of my acrylic based series work titled ‘Sufia’,’ said Zaman.
In Bangladesh, Farida Zaman has won Young Artist Award (Gold Medal) participating at the 4th Young Artist Exhibition in 1979 and the National Book Center Award for Children Book Illustration in 1986.
At present Fairda Zaman is a professor at the department of paintings of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University.
-With New Age input
