SWIMMING,a public art project by Monica Jahan Bose
Location: Marie Reed Plaza, 2201 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009. (Metro: Adams Morgan-Zoo or Dupont Circle, buses 90,92, 96)
Installation and VideoSoundwalk Viewing Dates: June 6-20, 2024, open 24 hours
Opening Event: Friday, June 7, 2024 [date changed due to weather], 5 - 8 pm, with dedication, poetry slam, and live streaming (starting at 6pm)
Artists/curator walkthrough tour: Saturday, June 8, 2024, 3 - 5 pm
Walkthrough tours and film screenings: on Tuesdays, June 11 & 18, 2024, 7:30 pm tour followed by short film as part of Adams Morgan Movie Nights (at dusk)
Performance: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 5 pm
Curator: Sarah Tanguy
All events free and all dates are weather dependent.
Updates and details
Press Release
Brochure
Livestream of Dedication
Washington Post Review

চলমান Ongoing
Location: Aloki, Shala Gallery, 211 Gulshan – Tejgaon Link Road, Dhaka -1208, Bangladesh
Exhibition Dates: March 1-9, 2024, 3-9 pm daily
Opening reception: March 1, 2024 at 4 pm
Curator: Ruxmini Choudhury

Choloman presents an in progress snapshot of Monica Jahan Bose’s ongoing Storytelling with Saris collaborative art project, addressing climate change and its impact on women, food, and our environment through saris, film, and performance. The word “choloman” in Bangla means ongoing, moving, or continuous and is especially used to refer to films that are running. Monica has worked for more than a decade with women farmers from her ancestral village in Katakhali, Barobaishdia Island, Patuakhali District along with residents of her home in Washington DC and others around the world.

“চলমান” প্রদর্শনীতে শিল্পী মনিকা জাহান বোস তুলে ধরেছেন শাড়ি, চলচিত্র এবং কৃতকলার মাধ্যমে তাঁর দীর্ঘমেয়াদী প্রকল্প “শাড়ির মধ্যে জীবনগাথা”। এই চলমান প্রকল্পে তিনি কাজ করছেন জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন এবং নারী, খাদ্য ও পরিবেশের উপরে এর বিরূপ প্রভাব নিয়ে। তিনি এক দশক ধরে তার মায়ের গ্রাম (কাটাখালী গ্রাম, বড়বাইশদিয়া দ্বীপ, পটুয়াখালী জেলা), আমেরিকা এবং ইউরোপে বসবাসরত নারীদের যৌথ সহযোগিতায় জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন সম্পর্কিত চিত্র, লেখা, এবং আলোচনা দিয়ে শিল্প করেছেন| “চলমান” শব্দটির বাংলা প্রচলিত সমার্থক অর্থ হল, অগ্রসরমান, অনবরত, অবিরাম, নিরন্তর ইত্যাদি, বিশেষ করে যা ব্যবহৃত হয় চলমান চলচিত্রের ক্ষেত্রে।
তত্ত্বাবধায়ক: রুক্সমিনি চৌধুরী

Image: © 2018, Monica Jahan Bose, Rising Up, performance still, Miami Beach, Florida; photo credit: Ben Droz.

Exhibition dates: January 19- April 27, 2024
Opening preview: January 18, 2024 from 5-7 pm (by invitation)
Location: South Asia Institute, 1925 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Exhibition hours: Thursday - Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm
Free on Fridays with code CommunitySAI
Information and Tickets
In their debut exhibition, The Paglees investigate – with fierceness, beauty, and wit – the impact on women of generations of patriarchy, religion, white supremacy, colonialism, violence, capitalism, and environmental plunder.

Nourish: Storytelling with Saris
Location: The Nicholson Project, 2310 Nicholson St SE Washington
DC 20020
Exhibition Dates: September 10-November 4, 2023
Opening Reception with Poetry Slam: September 10 from 4-6 pm
Artist Talk: October 21 from 2-3 pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays 2-6pm + Saturdays 12 noon – 4pm
More information
Washington Post Review

Nourish: Storytelling with Saris is an installation of video, drawings, poems, saris, and kanthas inspired by plants and herbs. Touching the soil and growing food are grounding and nourishing. For the last two years, Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose and DC participants in her Storytelling with Saris project have been connecting with the soil and Earth and food justice issues by nurturing plants on windowsills and planting neighborhood vegetable gardens. This year they planted and harvested in the garden at The Nicholson Project. Bose led a series of planting workshops that included poetry and art inspired by soil and plants. Using performance, sari art, writing, and film, Storytelling with Saris, which commenced in 2012, links DC residents with Bangladeshi coastal women farmers in solidarity to address climate and food injustice.

Electric Bangladesh: Fossil Free Futures
Location: The Foundry, Point Gallery Room, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA, USA
Dates: August 1-4, 2023, hours 4-8 pm
Reception: August 2, 2023 from 5-7 pm
Details Here

Please join me at this exhibition, for which two of my works have been commissioned. Five leading Bangladeshi artists are sending a message to GE and demanding a fossil fuel free future, with a new Boston-based art exhibition titled ‘Electric Bangladesh: Fossil Free Futures’.

Through our artwork, we are calling on GE to end its greenwashing – claiming to be green while backing massive fossil gas projects – and instead back clean renewable energy in Bangladesh.

Presented by @Climarte and commissioned by @Market Forces, the exhibition will run from 1-4 August at the Point Gallery at @CambridgeFoundry in Boston – right around the corner from GE’s new headquarters.

"Above Below Water"
Group exhibition curated by Beth Ferraro
Location: Culture House, 700 Delaware Ave SW, Washington, DC 20024
Exhibition dates: June 2-June 30, 2023
Opening reception: Friday, June 2 from 6-9pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, June 11 from 2-4pm
Open every Saturday and Sunday in June from 11 am to 2 pm, and by appointment (email curator Beth Ferraro at theartisland.dc@gmail.com)
This exhibit features works by Monica Jahan Bose, Noel Kassewitz, Andrea Limauro, Benny Starr, and Sarah Cameron Sunde. The show takes a deeper look at the current global climate crisis, including rising sea levels, culture, and how we stay connected. From Bangladesh to Anacostia, New Zealand to South Carolina, each piece explores both process and the outcome, weaving together who and what belongs with us now and in the future.


ABOVE BELOW WATER is part of DC Flood Awareness Week and sponsored by the District Department of Energy and Environment.

Dates: March 10-March 13, 2023
Location: Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
I will be a visiting artist and also presenting and participating in the conference "Gendered Threads of Globalization: 20th Century Textile Crossings in Asia."
WRAPture film screening and Q&A: March 10 at 5:30 pm, Room 103, Faculty of Fine Arts
Shiushuta (Needle & Thread) performance: March 12 at 12:30 pm, David Lam Auditorium Lobby
All events free. You may attend in person or view livestream by registering below.
Conference Information and Registration

“WRAPture: A Public Art Project” (40 mins) film screening followed by discussion with Monica Jahan Bose
Location: Dhaka Art Summit, Shilpala Academy Auditorium, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Date/time: February 9, 2023 at 6:30 pm

The film follows a climate justice art project from Washington DC’s low-income Anacostia neighborhood to Barobaishdia, a remote Bangladeshi island on the frontlines of climate change. Bangladeshi-American artist Monica Jahan Bose leads a dozen women farmers and over 200 Washingtonians to co-create 65 climate-themed saris, which wrap five Washington buildings. While they work on the saris, the participants recite poetry, sing, and dance, creating a trans-border community. The film includes rare footage and testimony of the impacts of climate change on coastal women farmers and the power of art to bring about change. It premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington at a joint event with the Smithsonian.

জলকন্যা কৃতকলা /Jalkanya (Water Woman) performance
মনিকা জাহান বোস যুগোল বন্দিতে প্রীমা নাজিয়া আন্দালিব
Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with Preema Nazia Andaleeb
Location: starting at the outdoor space at Dhaka University Faculty of Fine Arts and moving to the street towards the National Museum
চারুকলা থেকে শুরু
Date/Time: February 5, 2023 @ 3:00 pm, ৫ই ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০২৩ বিকাল ৩টা

দুটি নারী পরিবেশ এবং লিঙ্গ নিয়ে একটি সংলাপ তৈরি করে পানি, দেহ ও বারোবাইশদিয়া দ্বীপের নারী কৃষকদের ছাপানো শাড়ি দিয়ে। প্রীমা: “শাড়ি নারীর কথা বলে| নারী শাড়ি ধারণ করে | নারী শাড়ি ও জল প্রকৃতির অংশ এবং প্রকৃতি আমাদের জীবনের সমন্বয় সাধন করে | কৃতকলাটি প্রকৃতির মুক্তির স্বাদ অনুসন্ধান করে ঢাকার একটি জনবহুল স্থানে।” মনিকা: “নারীরা দীর্ঘ দূরত্বে পানি বহন করে ।জলবায়ু পরিবর্তন, বন্যা এবং ঘূর্ণিঝড়ের প্রভাবে নারীরা ক্ষতিগ্রস্থ হয়।কৃতকলাটি নারী সংহতি প্রকাশ করে।” গ্রামীণ ও শহরের নারীদেরকে শাড়ির নদীতে সংযুক্ত করে চারুকলা থেকে জাতীয় জাদুঘরের পথে নামা হবে। সবাইকে যোগ দেওয়ার জন্য আমন্ত্রণ ।
Two women weave an ecofeminist performance and dialogue using the body, water, and saris created with women farmers of Barobaishdia Island. Preema: “The sari represents women. Women, saris, and water are part of nature. The performance explores these ideas in a crowded public space in Dhaka." Monica: “Women are burdened with carrying water long distances and suffer the brunt of the impacts of climate change, floods, and cyclones. The piece speaks to women’s solidarity.” The performance links rural and urban women in a river of saris moving from Dhaka University to the National Museum and onwards, with the public invited to join along the way.

Pink Power (Carbon Free), installation (in collaboration with AU students, DC residents, and coastal woman farmers of Bangladesh)
Location: American University, Katzen Center for the Arts, 4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington DC.
Dates: August 12-September 8, 2022. Open daily from 7 am to 11 pm.
Reception: August 27, 2022, 7-8:30 pm
Meet the artist/walkthrough tours: September 2, 2022 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm and
September 6 from 2-4:30 pm or by appointment

Light Your Fire, public performance with teens from DC Public Schools.
Location: Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Independence Ave & 7th St., SW, Washington DC
Date/time: June 11, 2022, 1-3 pm

This event is brought to you by the Hirshhorn’s Artlab for teens and is open to visitors of all ages.

Light up your Saturday afternoon with the Hirshhorn’s Artlab Emerging Artist showcase and celebration. Throughout the spring, teens have been exploring and responding to public art, with the goal of reimagining monuments and memorials. Now, visitors of all ages are invited to experience their work. Teen artists will share a collective monumental work titled Hoping for Change, which will remain on view in the Artlab, June 11–24, 2022, before moving to its permanent home at DC’s Coolidge High School. Teens will also share original poetry and perform with local artist Monica Jahan Bose.

The accessible entrance to the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden is located on the south (Mall) entrance.

This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.

SUSTAIN: A Public Art Experience
Led by artist Monica Jahan Bose
Curator: Sarah Tanguy
Location: The LINE DC Facade and Unity Park, 1770 Euclid St NW, Washington DC (@ Columbia Rd NW)
Metro: Woodley Park/Zoo or Columbia Heights; bus 90, 96, 42, 43.
Please bring a smartphone and earphones to experience the soundwalk, which will be accessed with QR codes.
Sari Installation & Soundwalk Viewing Dates: June 1- June 9, 2022, open 24 hours
Dedication & Poetry Slam: June 3, 2022 @ 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Film Screening: June 3, 2022 @ 8:30 – 10 pm [sit on steps at Front of the Line; limited chairs available for seniors]
Poetry & Welcome Farmers: June 4, 2022 @ 10 am – noon [join us at Front of the Line to welcome the Farmer’s Market]
Walk-through Tours with Artist: June 5, 2022 @ 3 – 5 pm
Closing & Performance: June 9, 2022 @ 6 pm

All events free. All events except films livestreamed on Youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugMyOgSmQSXZ5YgpqLz7eA Dates may change due to weather. Register on Eventbrite to get details and updates.

This project is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Public Art Building Communities Grant Program and supported by community and media partners Boathouse Group, The LINE DC, Licking Creek Bend Farm, Adams Morgan BID, We Act Radio, WPFW 89.3, and Moms Clean Air Force.

SUSTAIN is a collective response to sustainability and the climate crisis featuring community-sourced poetry and art on saris. Made with women farmers from Bose’s ancestral island village in Bangladesh and DC participants of public sari and urban gardening workshops, the saris will wrap around the six grand columns of LINE DC’s façade, and create a welcoming passageway at Unity Park. Other highlights include a soundwalk, poetry slam, and film screenings about sustainable practices and the impacts of climate on agriculture and food security. SUSTAIN marks ten years of the collaborative climate justice project Storytelling with Saris.
Event Registration for Details/Updates
PRESS RELEASE
BROCHURE & ESSAY

Group Exhibition curated by Usama Saad featuring collaborative printmaking by 26 artists using multilingual scripts
Location: Museum of Villa Torlonia, Casina del Civette
via Nomentana 70, Rome
Dates: October 20, 2021- January 16, 2022
Exhibition Catalog
Bose Piece in Show

Group Exhibition, Curated by Nirmal Raja
Location: Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
273 E. Erie St., Milwaukee, WI 53202
Dates: October 11 - December 4, 2021
Panel Climate Change & Sustainability: Transnational Perspectives in Art, Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. CST, with Monica Jahan Bose, Pamela Longobardi, Jill Sebastian and Liz Bacchuber
Register for Oct 28 panel
Details on MIAD Site
Online Exhibition

RENEW Solo Show
Curator: Tara Gladden
Location: Kohl Gallery, Washington College, Gibson Center for the Arts, Chestertown, MD 21620
Exhibition dates: August 31- October 1, 2021
Artist talk and outdoor workshop: September 15, 2021, 4:30 pm outside Gibson Center
Gallery visits by appointment only: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
Gallery website with all details
Gallery Guide
Video of Exhibition

Jahan Bose's Kohl Gallery exhibit, RENEW, will include a selection of saris, paintings, prints, sculptures, artist books, and performance videos that represent her wide-ranging socially engaged practice and recent work exploring issues surrounding climate change within the context of COVID quarantine with communities in Bangladesh and Washington DC. The exhibit will be accompanied by an artist talk and a climate pledge workshop in which our community's pledges will create a new climate sari. Jahan Bose will be a visiting artist this Fall and will meet with students and carry out studio visits.

Location: DC Arts Center (exterior/sidewalk), 2438 18th
Street, NW, Washington DC, 20009.
Dedication/Opening: Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 7 pm, followed by projections from sunset to 10 pm.  Livestreamed at Watch here
Viewing hours: May 20, 2021 from 6-10 pm, May 21, 2021 from 6 -10 pm, May 22, 2021 from 2-10 pm, May 23, 2021 from 2-6 pm.
Poetry Slam: May 22, 2021 at 7 pm, followed by projections.
Projections: May 20-22, 2021 from sunset to 10 pm, livestreamed at |
Watch here|https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingWithSaris|
All dates weather dependent.
Free tickets here

Click here for PRESS RELEASE

WARMING WATERS, a Public Art Project on the C&O Canal in Georgetown with projections by Robin Bell
July 23-25,2020 viewing hours 6 am to 10 pm.
Projections nightly from 9-10 pm, weather permitting.
Dedication: July 23, 2020, 8 pm, followed by projections.
All visitors must wear masks and practice social distancing.
Limited tickets here for projections
Watch safely at home on livestream

Public Art Project/Virtual Earth Day Event:
April 22, 2020 12 pm - 1 pm - Facebook Live and Periscope from the studios of Monica Jahan Bose and Robin Bell.
Event Link - https://www.facebook.com/StorytellingWithSaris/live/
• Installation showcase, videos, and images of the workshops plus video speeches.

RESCHEDULED PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION DATE [Tentative]:
• July 22-25, 2020 - C&O Canal wall in Georgetown - Open All Day with
projections Thu- Sat from 9 pm - 10 pm | 1000 Potomac St, NW, Washington, DC.

Press Release

The Tides/La Marea, Solo exhibition by Monica Jahan Bose
Curator: Simona Amelotti
MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Via Nizza, 138, 00198 Roma, Italy
Location: Red colored "Area Incontri" in the middle of atrium of museum (level 0 and 1)

The tide is rising, fires are burning, food decreasing. THE TIDES, by Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose, is a site-specific installation and climate lab, using collaborative art, film, writing, testimonials, and performance featuring hand-women cotton saris from Bangladesh. Bose invites the public to join her in writing and drawing on a sari which will later be worn as a garment by a coastal woman from Bose’s ancestral village on Barobaishdia Island, Bangladesh. Bose uses blue saris to represent water, the rising tides, and the circle of life. She seeks to physically and emotionally connect people around the world on the issue of climate change. Since 2012, Bose’s collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS has traveled around the world, collecting over 1,000 written climate pledges to reduce carbon footprint.

The project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Schedule of events:

Thursday, December 5 from 1 - 8 pm: Join the artist to co-create the floating climate lab in the upper level red floating platform.

Friday December 6 from 11 am - 8 pm:  Join the artist in the upper level red floating climate lab for climate art on a sari and climate testimonials.

Saturday December 7 from 4 - 8 pm:  Join the artist in the upper level red floating climate lab for climate art on a sari and climate testimonials.

Sunday December 8 from 4 - 6 pm:  Conference -- film screening, talk, and discussion in AUDITORIUM (Level 0).

Tuesday December 10 from 4 - 8 pm: Join the artist in the upper level red floating climate lab for climate art on a sari and climate testimonials.

Wednesday December 11 from 4 - 8 pm:  Performance co-creation workshop - Join the artist in the upper level red floating climate lab to plan and co- create the final performance.  

Thursday December 12 from 6 - 7 pm: Performance in the lobby/atrium. 

Photo credit: Aviva Cashmira; copyright 2019 Monica Jahan Bose, performance still from “The Tides," Brittany, France, 2019

SUSTENANCE: duo exhibition by Monica Jahan Bose and Anju Chaudhuri
Curator:  Dawne Langford
Location: Carroll Square Gallery, 975 F Street, NW, Washington DC 20004
Exhibition dates:  September 5-21, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, September 5, 2019, 6-8 pm
Closing event:  Saturday, September 21, 2-4 pm
Gallery hours: M-F, 8 am - 6 pm

SUSTENANCE presents the compelling work in printmaking, drawing, and painting of Paris-based artist Anju Chaudhuri and DC-based artist Monica Jahan Bose. Chaudhuri's abstract organic images and undulating strokes speak to nature, in balance and disrupted. Bose uses bold lines, symbolic objects, and the iconic sari to refer to the cycle of life and the crisis of climate change.

This is the first exhibition in DC of the internationally-acclaimed Anju Chaudhuri. The exhibition is supported by a Sister Cities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts).

Image credit:  Anju Chaudhuri, Trees (detail), 2016, watercolor, ink, and pastel on rice paper, 88 x 17 inches.

Press Release
Review in Washington Post

Solo Exhibition, Seven Minutes on the B67
Location: Open Source Gallery, 306 17th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Exhibition dates: May 22-June 29, 2019
Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 2 to 6 pm
Artist Talk: May 3, 2019, 7-9 pm
Opening reception/iftar: May 22, 2019, 7-9 pm
Talk by filmmaker Ambika Samarthya-Howard: June 9, 2019, 11 am
Closing event: June 29, 2019 3-5 pm

Gallery website

WRAPture, A Temporary Public Art Installation
Installation Hubs: Anacostia Arts Center, 1231 Good Hope Rd, SE, Washington DC & We Act Radio, 1918 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave, SE, Washington DC.
Thursday, April 4 — Launch, Viewing hours 3-8 pm.
From 3-5 pm, Slideshow in Anacostia Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre
From 5-6 pm, Dedication ceremony/opening at We Act Radio. Reception and viewing continues until 8 pm.

Saturday, April 20 — CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER. STAY TUNED FOR NEW DATE
Second day of WRAPture installation. Viewing hours 1-7 pm.
From 1-3 pm, Slideshow in Anacostia Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre, featuring the sari workshops in Washington DC and Bangladesh.
From 3-5 pm, Poetry Showcase by WRAPture Participants, in Anacostia Arts Center’s Black Box theatre.
From 5-6:30 pm, Reception in Anacostia Arts Center
Activities and engagement for all ages in Anacostia Arts Center main space.

Tuesday, May 7 — Celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Viewing hours 3- 8 pm.
From 6-8 pm, Reception/Poetry Open Mic/Cookout at Check It.

Saturday, May 18 - Final Day of WRAPture installation.
Viewing hours 2-7 pm.
From 4-5 pm, poetry open mic at Anacostia Arts Center
From 5-6:30 pm Closing Reception at Anacostia Arts Center

More Details
Press Kit

RISING UP, climate art action, at Superfine! Miami Beach, Art Deco Welcome Center, 1000 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach December 7, 2018 at 3 pm

After the performance, join us at Superfine! for a panel discussion on art and climate change at 5 pm, followed by a screening of short performance art films by Monica Jahan Bose at 6 pm.

Article in Financial Times
"When It Comes to Sea Level Rise, Can Art Keep Us Afloat?" blog post by Superfine!

Location: Serafio Sports, Culture & Innovation Center, Pireos 163, Athens 118 54, Greece
An exhibition, workshops, and performance by Monica Jahan Bose.
Opening reception and workshop: July 5, 7 - 9 pm.
"Shelter": workshop with refugee women: July 12, 6-9 pm
Closing reception and performance Home-Spiti-Bari: July 18, 7-9 pm.
Exhibition dates: July 5-18, 2019. Hours 10 am - 6 pm weekdays, 10 am to 4 pm Saturdays.
Curated by: Vasia Deliyianni

FOOTPRINT-APOTIPOMA is a collective response to climate change and migration. Climate change and conflict are destroying people's homes and homelands, leading to migration of people across borders. Using saris from Bangladesh covered in writing and images by Bangladeshis, Americans, and Europeans, Bose creates an interior space or dwelling within the gallery, speaking to the idea of shelter, safety, and working together to address a global problem. Her works on paper address the disruption of nature by climate change, using a combination of printmaking, painting, and words in many languages. Bose will organize multiple workshops and a performance and will collaborate with refugee women in Athens. Please join the interactive performance on July 18.

The exhibition is organized by the Mayor's office of Athens and is supported in part by Sister Cities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is supported by the National Endowment on the Arts. It will be held as part of Athens' designation at World Book Capital 2018.

Press Release
Invitation
Curatorial essay (Greek)

Civilian Art Projects, 4718 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
Dates: March 31- April 21, 2018
Opening reception: Saturday, March 31 @ 7-9 pm
Sari workshop and sing-a-long, April 14 @ 3 pm
Closing and artist's talk: Saturday, April 21 @ 3 pm
Gallery hours:12-6pm Saturday, and by appointment info@civilianartprojects.com

Weather the Storm centers on a series of performances and climate art actions that Monica Jahan Bose has led since November 2016, presenting new paintings, video, prints and saris. The title of the show derives from a Bengali song that the artist has been singing in her performances, lines from which appear in her paintings. She has taken Tagore’s "Kharobayu Boye Bege (Storm Winds Are Blowing)" and replaced “O boatman” with “O Woman” to create a feminist song about working together to row a boat to shore during a storm. Over several years, she has collaborated with homeless women from Calvary Women’s Services in Anacostia as well as women from One Billion Rising, a global platform to end violence against women, and the women of her ancestral village, Katakhali Village, Barobaishdia Island, Bangladesh. Bose’s performances, paintings, videos, works on paper, and saris explore themes of empowerment, environment, mythology, and community.

A Bangladeshi-American artist and lawyer who has lived in seven countries, Bose uses Bengali and English text and women’s writing as integral elements in her work, highlighting multilingualism and women’s agency and literacy. Bose has long used the sari — 18 feet of unstitched handwoven fabric — to represent women’s lives, both in her paintings and her ongoing social practice project Storytelling with Saris.

She has started using the coconut as a symbol of climate resilience. Each of her recent performances about climate change — in Miami, Washington DC, Honolulu, Paris, and Katakhali Village, Bangladesh — involved months of planning to create a woman-centered community, which comes together to collect dozens of coconuts to build a raft, sew saris together to make a massive sari, write carbon reduction pledges on saris, or grow and plant a coconut tree.

Image: Storm Winds Are Blowing, 2018, 35 x 51 in.

The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication, Rising Up to Climate Change: Storytelling with Saris, and is funded in part by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Installation/ art action / performance in collaboration with Anju Chaudhuri
Location: Galerie Six Elzevir, 6 rue Elzevir, Paris 75003, France
October 16, 2017 noon - 9 pm.

Press release in French and English

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center presents "Ae Kai," a culture lab on convergence
Dates: July 7-9, 2017, 11 am to 9 pm
Location: Site of former Foodland, Ala Moana Shopping Center, Honololu, Hawai'i

I will be presenting RECLAIM, an installation and interactive language and climate lab in collaboration with Hawai'ian artist Hina Kneubuhl. I am also collaborating with Hawai'ian artist Sloane Leong on a zine about the language movements in Hawai'i and Bangladesh.
Special performance on Saturday, July 8, 2017 at 4:00 pm, starting at the Foodland site and moving to Ala Moana beach park.
Website for the Smithsonian "Ae Kai" Culture Lab

Location: Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI
February 16, 2017 - May 14, 2017
Talk by Monica Jahan Bose on February 16, 2017.

Ornate/Activate examines the use of decorative arts and motifs, architectural elements, scripts, traditional materials, and other forms of pattern-making by artists of South Asian origin to create meaningful and critical content. The exhibition, organized by the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) and curated by Alexander Campos, addresses themes such as inequality stemming from the global economy, loss of language and culture, gender violence, discrimination, segregation, and issues of equality and identity. The artists in Ornate/Activate recognize a need to reclaim tactile and decorative methods of making as a way to address social, political, and economic issues and also to confront the ever-growing presence of technology in everyday life.

Exhibiting Artists:
Nida Abidi, Fariba Alam, Kamal Badhey, Shelly Bahl, Marcy Chevali, Priyanka Dasgupta, Roya Farassat, Asha Ganpat, Parisa Ghaderi, Zainab Hussain, Monica Jahan Bose, Vandana Jain, Umber Majeed, Radhika Mathews, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Nirmal Raja, Sausan Saulat, Suran Song, Udita Upadhyaya.

Press in Milwaukee Sentinel

Address: Ave C Plaza, Kensington, Brooklyn, NY
Time: July 16, 2016, 4:30 to 7:30 pm

Arts & Democracy presents AddaArt, a workshop, oral history project, and performance initiated by artist/activist Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with the Bangladeshi immigrant community in Kensington, Brooklyn.  The project is bilingual, in Bengali and English.  The project team includes project coordinator Hasiba Haq and cultural organizers Caron Atlas and Michelle Proffit. 

“Adda" is the Bengali word for intense conversation - both intellectual and personal - often carried out in public places and accompanied by tea and snacks.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines “adda” as “a place where people gather for conversation.”  Adda has usually been the privilege of men, while women and girls are relegated to the domestic sphere in South Asia and its diaspora. Adda and Art come together in AddaArt, to highlight the rich art and stories of the community.

Panel discussion at GWU/Corcoran.
Address: Corcoran Auditorium, 500 17th St., NW, Washington, DC
Time: Saturday, April 9, 2016 @ 2 pm.

George Washington University's Association of Graduate Art Students is hosting a panel discussion with some of the leading art professionals in DC!
The panelists are as follows: Dr. Cristin McKnight Sethi will moderate this panel. She is an art historian and curator of South Asian art with a focus on textiles and folk art. She holds a PhD from University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Melissa Chiu is the director of the Smithsonian's Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. She oversees a staff of 50 and a collection of nearly 12,000 objects that represent pieces by leading artists from the late 19th century to the present day. She received her PhD from University of Western Sydney.

Monica Jahan Bose is an artist whose paintings, works on paper, performances and installations are symbolic narratives addressing gender, women's literacy and sexuality, and climate change. She strategically moves across media and disciplines to address complex issues and engage diverse audiences.

Victoria Reis is the Co-Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of Transformer, founded in 2002 in Washington, DC. She began her career in contemporary visual arts at the National Association of Artist's Organization.

Dr. Nicole Ivy is the Museum Futurist fellow at the American Alliance of Museums. Her work focuses on museum labor practices, especially as they affect diversity, equity and audience. She received her PhD from Yale University.

Address: Haven South Beach, 1237 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Date: April 1, 2016 @ 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Cinema Green of the Environmental Coalition of Miami and the Beaches presents three short documentary films, JALOBAYU by Monica Jahan Bose; Her Words:Storytelling with Saris by Monica Jahan Boe and Nandita Ahmed and
Thirty Million by Daniel Price and Adrien Taylor. Featuring Q&A with Monica Jahan Bose.

Curated and organized by Twelve Gates Gallery
October 25, 2015; 5:30 to 8:30 pm
Location: Urban Center Annex to the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University.3401 Filbert St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Performance art festival featuring Monica Jahan Bose, Shazia Shikander, Sumit Baudh, and Qasim Reza. Monica Jahan Bose will create RISING, a performance/installation.
Twelve Gates Website and details
Review of event in Express Tribune

Anacostia Arts Center, 1231 Good Hope Rd SE, Washington DC 20020
Dates: May 8 - June 6, 2015
Opening reception and workshop: May 8, 2015 6-8 pm
Anacostia Arts Center website
Review in Washington City Paper
Review in East of the River Magazine, July 2015
WAMU Art Beat Radio Announcement
Education Town Hall, June 4, 2015, We Act Radio, starting at 8:10 mins and 25:30 mins

Bangladesh National Museum, Shahbagh, Dhaka
Dates: February 8-14, 2015
Opening Reception with live music: February 10 from 4 to 6 pm
Performance with One Billion Rising: February 14 at 5 pm
Prothom Alo, Feb. 14, 2015
Prothom Alo, Feb. 21, 2015
Ittefaq Feb. 2015
NTV Online Feb. 2015

Address: Select Pavilion, Booth C3, 73rd and Collins Ave, Miami Beach
Dates: December 2-7, 2014, hours 11 am to 8 pm except Sunday (till 5 pm)
VIP preview: December 2, 2014, 4 - 8 pm
Cosmos Gallery is presenting Rokeya Sultana, Monica Jahan Bose, and Preema Nazia Andaleeb. I have an installation of saris, video, photographs and prints. I am also doing a performance called JALOBAYU on December 5 at 4 pm.
select-fair.com/
Press Release
Mapanare Nov. 2014
Mapanare, review and images of JALOBAYU

The Gateway Project, 2 Gateway Center, Newark, NJ (near Newark Penn Station) )
Dates: October 9- November 20, 2014
Opening: October 9 from 6 to 9 pm
Exhibition hours: Tues-Thurs 11 am to 6 pm
I have an installation of photos, video and saris in this show and will be doing a performance/installation called "Water" on opening night at 7:30 pm. Curated by Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol.
More details

Exhibition (installation of saris, video and journals) at Ted Kennedy Center,
Dates: July 19-August 9, 2014
Address: House 5, Rd 27(old), Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Inauguration and Book Launch: July 19,2014 at 5 pm (iftar at sundown)
Artist's talk and closing reception: August 7, 2014 at 7 pm
Review in Ananya Magazine
Review in Janakantha
Article in Dhaka Courier
Article in Prothom Alo

"1 in 3": a multi-media exhibition on gender-based violence
Address: World Bank Main Building, 1818 H St NW, Washington DC
Time: Opening ceremony and reception, May 22, 2014, 5-8 pm
MUST RSVP specialevents@worldbank.org by May 20.
I have two-large paintings in this show, representing the North America region.

"Asian American Environmentalism: Expansions, Connections & Social Change," moderated by Charles Lee, EPA Office of Environmental Justice
Address: Congressional Visitors Center, Meeting Room North, 1st St SE, Washington, DC, hosted by the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS)
Date: May 21, 2014, 4 pm - 5:30 pm
rsvp to Lmohib@apaics.org

Address: Grace Exhibition Space, 840 Broadway, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY
Date/Time: Friday, April 25, 9:30 pm.
Using saris, fire, and water, the performance speaks to climate change and its destruction of lives and heritage.
WATER is part of RECORD & GHOST (curated by Eames
Armstrong), two nights of performances, addressing the role of document, archive, constructions, and remnants in performance itself and long after the fact.
Event details

Address: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY
Time: Saturday, March 1, 2014, 8 pm
This is part of SAWCC's Sublime Series presented for a "Women's Stories" first Saturdays Event as part of Women's History Month

"Unwrapped," a performance/installation
Address: Capitol Skyline Hotel, 10 I st. SW, Washington DC
Time: October 3, 2013 at 6 pm (private preview) and October 6, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Duration: one hour
|http://freepdfhosting.com/9ea7e83534.pdfReview in Berlin Art Link|
Washington City Paper Images
Audio of post-performance dialogue at Hillyer Art Space
Article in Art See

Sublime Virtue, a performance/installation by Monica Jahan Bose at the Dumbo Arts Festival, as part of SAWCC's "Sublime," curated by Shelly Bahl, Sunita Mukhi, and Jasmine Wahi
address: 100 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY (A and C trains to High Street)
time: September 28 at noon and 4 pm, September 29 at noon.
Statement with details
Article in Epoch Times
Cover Story Brooklyn Paper

"Layer by Layer: Storytelling with Saris"
Address: Brentwood Arts Exchange, Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, Maryland, 20722
Dates: September 9-October 19, 2013
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 14, 2013, 5 to 8 pm
Panel discussion on Thursday, September 26, 2013, 6:30 to 8 pm: "Artivism: Can Art Effect Social Change?"; moderated by Helen Frederick
Saturday, October 12, 2013, 3 to 5:30 pm, "All Wrapped Up." a closing event with sari and lungi wrapping, Bangla writing workshops on handmade paper, and a reception with Bengali snacks
Gallery hours: Monday through Friday: 10 am – 7pm
Saturday: 10 am – 4pm
Sunday: Closed
Brentwood Arts Exchange Website
article in the Independent
review in Art Asia Pacific
review in the Sentinel
ArtBeat Radio Report on WAMU

Bust Stop Bangladesh: a performance/installation for Storytelling with Saris (supported by Art Lives Here though the National Endowment for the Arts)
Address: 1 Municipal Place, Mt. Ranier, Maryland
Dates: June 4, 12, 20th, 2013 5 pm to 7:30 pm
Press Release
Article in Dhaka Tribune
Link to Video

"Her Stories: Fifteen years of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective"
Address: Taubman Museum of Art, 110 Salem Ave SE Roanoke, VA 24011
Dates: June 10 - August 24, 2013
Opening reception: June 14, 2013, 5 to 7:30 pm
Taubman Museum Website

"Storytelling with Saris," Monica Jahan Bose's artist's talk and printmaking demonstration
Address: gallery of Brentwood Arts Exchange, Gateway Arts Center, 3901 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, Maryland
Time: 3 to 5 pm, Saturday, March 16, 2013
Independent's article on project

"Be/Longing, art from the South Asian Women's Creative Collective" (curated by Monica Jahan Bose and Brooke Seidelmann)
Address: Smith Center, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, 1632 U St, NW, Washington, DC 20009
Dates: March 1- April 13, 2013
Opening Reception, March 1, 2013, 7 - 9 pm
Closing events on Saturday April 13, 2013:
Performance of Indelible Scent by Monica Jahan Bose (3:30 - 4:30 pm)
Artists' talk with special guest Masum Momaya (4:30 to 5:30 pm)
Closing reception (5:30 to 7:00 pm).
Gallery hours: W-F 11 - 5 pm and Saturday 11-3 pm (or by appointment).
Review in Washington Post
Press Release
Invitation
TV Broadcast about Be/Longing in Bangladesh with Voice of America on March 8, 2013

"Collapsing Borders," February 7- March 8, 2013
Address: Sitar Arts Center, 1700 Kalorama Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009
Opening reception: 6:30 pm, February 7, 2013

Address: Hillyer Interanational Arts & Artist, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW, Washington DC 20008
Date: December 13, 2012, 7-9 pm
Invitation and details
Writeup on Indelible Scent by Erika Jackson

GALLERY COSMOS @ Art Asia Miami 2012
International Contemporary Art Fair
Address: Midtown Wynwood Arts District
110 NE 36th Street @ Midtown Blvd
Miami, Florida, Booth D10
Dates: December 5 – 9, 2012
VIP Vernissage, December 4, 2012 from 4 to 8 pm
Fair hours from December 5 – 8, 2012 from 11 am to 7 pm
December 9, 2012 from 11 am to 6 pm.
As part of Art Asia Presents, I will be doing a performance/installation called "Indelible Scent." Performance times: December 4, 5, and 8 @ 6 pm.
Press Release
Miami Herald Print Edition, Dec. 5, 2012
Miami Herald Basel Blog, Dec. 5, 2012
The Daily Star, Dec. 4, 2012
Patrick Ogle Article, Dec. 9, 2012
Free Ticket to Fair

"Art and Liberation: The Perspective of Three Bangladeshi Women Artists," March 26, 2012, Vibrant Bangldesh Magazine
I was asked to contribute an article for the special edition of "Vibrant Bangladesh" in commemoration of 40 years of Bangladesh's independence.

"Contemporary Voices," August 8-20, 2012
Address: House 60, Road 7A Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1207
Opening Reception, August 10, 2012, 4 - 8 pm

"Her Stories: Fifteen Years of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective" (Curated by Jaishri Abichandani), Queens Museum of Art
Address: Queens Museum of Art, New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368
Exhibition Dates: August 11, 2012–October 7, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 11, 3–6pm
Please come to this gorgeous show, where I have a new mini sculptural installation.
Queens Museum Website
More Information

Department of Fine Arts, Hyderabad University, Hyderabad, India
Time: Monday, July 30, 2012, 11:30 am

Address: 39th Street Gallery, Gateway Art Center, 3900 Rhode Island Ave, Brentwood, MD
Date: Thursday June 14, 2012, 7 pm
I will be giving a talk/presentation about a collaborative printmaking and story project celebrating the achievement of literacy by women in the remote island community of Katakhali, Bangladesh, which is my ancestral village and part of an eco-project run by Samhati, a Maryland charity.
More details

DC Arts Center's gala, Cuisine des Artistes
Date: May 10, 2012, 6:30 pm
Address: Meridian House, 1630 Crescent Place NW, Washington, DC 20009
I will be doing my first performative installation at this event.
Tickets available at
cuisinedesartistes2012.charityhappening…

"Erotica 2012," MOCA DC Art Gallery
Address: 1054 31st Street NW, Washington DC 20007
Dates: March 2 - 31, 2012
Opening Reception: March 2, 2012, 6 to 10 pm
(Ground floor in the brick Canal Square Building, next to Parrish Gallery).

"Heart Warmer," February 15 - March 31, 2012
Address: Sova, 1359 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Opening Reception: February 15, 7 to 11 pm
Closing Party: Saturday, March 24, 2012, 8 pm to midnight

"Digital Migrations"
Address: 1526 Rhode Island Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Dates: November 1, 2011 - January 11, 2012
Opening Reception: November 9, 2011, 6-9 pm

Red Dirt Open Studio, November 14, 2011, 1-5 pm
Address; 3706 Otis Street, Mt. Ranier, MD 20712
I have created a site-specific installation for this event using saris, sari blouses, copper, onions, and stones.

"Portraits: 2nd Annual Juried Exhibtion," Oct. 31- Dec. 9. 2011
Address: Sitar Arts Center, 1700 Kalorama Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009
Opening reception and awards ceremony: 6:30 pm, Nov. 3, 2011
The self-portrait "Estrogen/Moonlight by the Red River" won first prize in the show. I will have a solo show at Sitar Art Center in 2013.

"SAWCC's 5th Annual Auction and Show," October 19, 2011
Address: Saffronart, The Fuller Building,595 Madison Avenue, Suite 900, New York, NY 10022
Details
I am on the board of this artist's collective and participating in this event, showcasing work by a number of emerging and established artists.

"Speak Your Mind: The Lives and Stories of Muslim and Arab Women"
June 1-25, 2011
Address: 7500 Maple Ave, Takoma Park, MD
Opening reception and artists' talk: June 11, 2011, 3:30 to 5:45 pm
Monica Jahan Bose's Talk
Article in the Gazette
Article in the Independent

"Who Have You Left Behind?" Mixed-media paintings and installation, May 12-27, 2011
Address: Embassy of Bangladesh, 3510 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008 Metro: Van Ness/UDC (Red Line)
Opening Reception: May 12, 2011 from 6:30 - 9 pm
Special Open House: Saturday, May 14 from 10:00 am to 6 pm
Closing Reception: Friday, May 27 from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Embassy Hours: Mon - Friday 9:30 am to 5:30 pm or by appointment
Invitation
Press Release
Slideshow of Opening
Slideshow of Installation
Article in Daily Star
Article in the Independent

Curated by Tom Wolff, March 4-25, 2011
Address: 9 Hillyer Court, Washington, DC 20008 (metro: Dupont Circle)
Opening Reception, March 4, 2011, 6 to 9 pm
Invitation
Slideshow of Opening
Article in the Independent

Friday, December 3, 2010, 5 to 9 pm
900 16th Street (6 blocks from Art Basel)
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Invitation

"Open the Door (Kholo Kholo Dar)," July 15-26, 2010
Address: House 60, Road 7A Dhanmondi 1207
Inauguration Reception, July 16, 2010, 6 pm
Invitation to Preview
Press Release
Slide Show of Installation and Receptions
"Open the Door" Catalog
Dhaka Art Center
Article in Daily Star
Article in the Independent
Article in New Age
Article in Prothom Alo
Article in Jai Jai Din

"Pandora's Box," Ganges Art Gallery, June 23- July 4, 2010
Address: 33A Jatin Das Road, Kolkata 700029
Invitation
Ganges Art Gallery

Address: Galerie Municipale Julio Gonzalez, 21 av Paul Doumer, 94110 Arcueil.
Opening reception: Friday, May 28, 2010, 6:30 pm.
Exhibition continues until June 19, 2010.
Hours: Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 7 pm; Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 to 7 pm.
More Information and Directions
My entry for exhibition, "Open the Door," acrylic, pigment and newspaper on canvas, 250 x 200 cm

"Santiniketan," group show with Sharmila Roy and Utpal Chakroborty, April 9-11, 2010
Address:90, rue Victor Hugo, 93170 Bagnolet, Metro: Robespierre (line 9)
Opening reception, April 9, 2010, 6-9 pm.
Dinner reception, April 11, 2010, 7-10 pm
Invitation
Slideshow of Opening
Slideshow of Closing Reception with Paban Das Baul

"Tumi Ami: Spring Heat," March 19 through April 4, 2010
Address: 3-5 passage Gravilliers, 75003 Paris.
Works in Show
English Press Release
French Press Release
Slideshow of Installation and Receptions
Article in the Daily Star

Address: House 60, Road 7A Dhanmondi 1207
Completed new work, "Happily Ever After."
Slideshow of Inauguration and Art Camp

"Drowning: Is There Time for Love?," July 23-August 5, 2009
Address: Alliance Française de Dhaka, 26 Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1205
Slideshow of Exhibition and Opening
Essay by Leah Stoddard
Exhibition Catalog
Invitation
Article in Alliance Française Magazine
Article in Lifestyle Magazine, The Daily Star
Article in the Daily Star
Article in New Age
Article in The New Nation Independent Daily (internet edition)
Article in The New Nation
Article in Dhaka Courier Magazine
Article in Anannya Magazine (Bangla)
Article in Amader Shomoy (Bangla)
Article in Destiny (Bangla)
Article in Daily Jonokontho (Bangla)

"Reflection/Narration: Where Are We Going?," duo exhibition with Imtiaj Shohag, February 19 - 23, 2009
Address: UNESCO Headquarters, 7 place de Fontenoy, 75015 Paris
UNESCO Program/Invitation
Installation Slideshow
Daily Star Article

"Water, Love, Language: Fragments of Identity," Jan. 24 - Feb. 1, 2009
Address: 109, rue Quincampoix ,75003 Paris
Galerie Mediart
Press Release (English)
Paris show installation and opening slideshow
Prothom Alo article in Bangla
Anannya Magazine Article in Bangla

"Summer Flavors," July 5-29, 2001
DFN Gallery

"Tokyo Scenes: Intersections, Balconies, and Interiors," Feb. 21- Mar. 5, 2000
Genkan Gallery, TAC, 4-25-46 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Asian Economic News Review
The Japan Times
The Genkan Magazine
The Daily Mainichi