The Gallery of Montmartre, in Paris, has organized the solo exhibition of Bangladeshi artist Fawaz Rob titled, "Dhaka, I Love You", in France.
According to a press release announced on Tuesday, the exhibition was featured in French Newspaper "La Parisien".
Fawaz Rob is a globally-celebrated artist even though his background is in architecture and design. His work has been displayed in: Nepal, India, Italy, Croatia, and France. He accumulated his urban experiences and created an otherworldly scenario of Dhaka city.
Although Bangladesh has a share of negative exposure in the media world, Fawaz has tried to change the perspective of the world through his art.
In protest of the recent declaration that Dhaka is the second-least livable city, Fawaz Rob explored the life and architecture of the city through his printmaking. His art explores: construction, traffic, rickshaws, crows, and other elements of daily life in Dhaka city.
Picture displayed in the exhibition | Courtesy
The backgrounds of most of his artwork feature charming forms, sharp contrasts and brilliant depth.
For the ongoing show, the artist is exhibiting around 30 etchings and aquatints on handmade Bangladeshi paper.
Fawaz Rob said, “There are many things to be proud of about Dhaka city. It is not only the architecture of old Dhaka, but the harmony in which twenty million people of different religion and social classes coexist. I feel when one quantifies a city through a statistical medium, much of the story gets lost.
"We tend to focus largely on traffic jams. However, this four-hundred-year-old city has many secrets hidden in her alleys. Mughals, British, French, and even Armenians have left architectural marks in the city."
Dhaka is also home to hundreds of mosques, temples, and churches. It has one of the greatest feats of architecture of the twentieth century—the national parliament building by Louis Kahn.
Besides architecture, there are millions of stories to be told about the lives of people living in Dhaka city.
Picture displayed in the exhibition | Courtesy
Most French people are not familiar with Dhaka's life and architecture. This exhibition is an opportunity for them to glimpse this undiscovered city. The French have been surprised to learn that Farashganj (French village) is named after the French.
A few hundred years ago, thousands of French spice traders lived in Dhaka, until the British arrived, and spice trading took a different route. There are still many buildings that bear the architectural motifs of French Gothic style.
Fawaz Rob obtained his undergraduate degree in San Francisco, USA and master’s degree from Florence, Italy.
He has worked in: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, Rome, and Berlin. Now he has settled in Dhaka as an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture in North South University, Dhaka.
His architectural etchings and aquatints are set to represent Dhaka in a positive light to the rest of the world.
