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Biography

Tayeba Begum Lipi (b. 1969, Gaibandha, Bangladesh) creates paintings, prints, videos and installations articulating themes of female marginality and the female body. Her sculptural works re-creating everyday objects including beds, bathtubs, strollers, wheelchairs, dressing tables and women’s undergarments use unexpected materials, such as safety pins and razor blades. This purposeful and provocative choice of materials speaks to the violence facing women in Bangladesh, as well as referencing tools used in childbirth in the more underdeveloped parts of the country.

 

Lipi completed a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka in 1993. She was awarded a Grand Prize at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2003 and was the commissioner for the Pavilion of Bangladesh at the 54th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia in 2011. In 2012, she was one of the curators for the Kathmandu International Art Festival. She also participated in the 14th Jakarta Biennale and the Colombo Art Biennale in Sri Lanka in 2011 and the Dhaka Art Summit in 2012. In 2000 Lipi was an artist-in-residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

 

Lipi’s work has been exhibited across the globe at venues such as Shanghai Modern Art Museum, China; the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; and the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan. In 2015, her work featured prominently in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Her work is on view in Being and Belonging: Contemporary Women Artists from the Islamic World and Beyond at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto through November 19, 2023 .

 

Lipi is represented in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; LO-FTF Foundation, Denmark; Sydney; Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Segunbagicha; Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh; Devi Art Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana; Floodlight Foundation, New Delhi; JSW Foundation and the Harmony Art Foundation/Reliance Group, Mumbai, India.

 

In 2002 Lipi co-founded the Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh’s first artist-run alternative arts platform dedicated to organizing exhibitions, encouraging intercultural dialogue and providing residencies for local artists. Work by members of Britto Arts Trust was featured in Documenta 15 in 2022.

 

Tayeba Begum Lipi lives and works in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Architectural Digest India
Press
Architectural Digest India
Tayeba Begum Lipi’s Singapore show is a personal commentary on a world riddled by a virus January 12, 2023

Tayeba Begum Lipi’s razor blade sculptures to be on display at the Singapore Art Week and Art SG at her show Melancholy is both a narrative and a commentary on the pandemic.

Architectural Digest India
Press
Architectural Digest India
At Singapore Art Week, an all-women show confronts exclusion January 15, 2022

Sundaram Tagore Gallery’s show, A Room Of Her Own, features Anila Quayyum Agha, Tayeba Lipi, Lalla Essaydi, Karen Knorr, Miya Ando, Neha Vedpathak, Jane Lee and Susan Weil.

The New Delhi Pioneer
Press
The New Delhi Pioneer
Memoirs of Pain May 8, 2019

Tayeba Begum Lipi's sculptures of blades represent the pathos-filled stories of patriarchy in the world of Muslim women of northern Bangladesh.

 

Architectural Digest India
Press
Architectural Digest India
Tayeba Begum Lipi, ‘This is What I Look(ed) Like,’ Sundaram Tagore New York April 4, 2019

On display are sculpture, photography and video installations that explore issues of female identity in contemporary life

Colossal
Press
Colossal
Tayeba Begum Lipi April 4, 2019

Stainless Steel Razor Blades Compose Sculptures of Garments and Household Objects by Tayeba Begum Lipi.

Artforum
Press
Artforum
The Artist as activist: Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman November 2016

One of the first exhibitions of contemporary art from Bangladesh at an American museum, the two-person show The Artist as Activist confirmed the South Asian country’s place in the world as it surveyed the politcially engaged practices of artist couple Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman.

ArtAsiaPacific
Press
ArtAsiaPacific
Entangled Tensions: Bangladeshi Women Artists November 2015

Several contemporary Bangladeshi artists have been grappling with issues of national and personal identities, and with the impact of global interactions. Among their many peers, three women artists—Tayeba Begum Lipi (b. 1969), Dilara Begum Jolly (b. 1960) and Nazia Andaleeb Preema (b. 1974)—explore these issues via the lens of gender.

Artnet
Press
Artnet
artnet Asks: Bangladeshi Artist Tayeba Begum Lipi August 2015

Artnet talks with Bangladesh-born artist Tayeba Begum Lipi, whose work highlights the violence against women in her country, while also showcasing their fortitude.

Artsy
Press
Artsy
Tayeba Begum Lipi Wields Razor Blades to Address Violence Against Women August 2015

By fusing intimate subject matter with aggressive materiality, Tayeba Begum Lipi reflects on the personal and political perils of a stifling society.

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