Artist Name: Shanjana Mahmud
Residency Dates: April – October 2024
Hometown: Chittagong, Bangladesh
Lives & Works: New York, NY
Shanjana Mahmud was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1983. She received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and BFA from Southern Methodist University in 2005. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her art practice spans drawings, videos, installations, and advocacy. Currently, her work centers the water. To her, the ocean is home— unlike the United States, where she lives, and Bangladesh, where she was born. An evermoving non-place, an abyss, the ocean interrogates our notion of belonging and ownership. She often collaborates with her life partner, Luke Eddins, on water-based works at Seaweed City. They farm seaweed in NYC for remediation and restoration of our waters. They design and install mussel habitats along our seawalls, researching and thinking about the texture and shape mussels like to settle into. They advocate for living shorelines and biophilic materials: what attracts marine life? Their projects seek to make an impact rather than theorize about it. They dare to materialize in natural spaces that can be observed and noted and leave a place better than it was. They are in dialogue with biologists, environmental activists, eco-tech bros, climate news journalists, urban planners, and policymakers. This is a great place to be, in the intersection of art making, nature-based climate solutions, and advocacy amongst those interested in how we relate to nature and the natural in the face of a climate catastrophe.
The 2024 VoM III Artist Residency Program is supported by The Brooklyn Public library (BPL) and the Roman Foundation.
