Monica Jahan Bose

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and activist whose work spans performance, painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, installations, and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. She has been awarded five large-scale public art grants in Washington DC, each centering community co-creation and featuring multiple workshops, poetry slams, film/projections, performance, and site-specific installation.

Her ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris, started in 2012 with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 13 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, BBC, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, woodblocks, and archival materials. She has a BA in studio art from Wesleyan University, a diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia University School of Law. She lives and works in Washington DC.

Photo & Bio courtesy of the artist.