Bangladesh Opens Its First Commercial Art Fair in Dhaka
Bangladesh is about to stage its first commercial art fair. Art Dhaka opens on 6 November 2026 and runs until 10 November at Aloki, a cultural hub in Dhaka, the capital. The Art Newspaper reports that the debut follows the country's landmark elections in February 2026.
Aloki is a multidisciplinary venue, which means it hosts art, performance and other kinds of creative work under one roof. The building was once a garment factory. Organisers have described Art Dhaka as a hybrid art fair, a format that mixes several kinds of activity in one event.
The fair is organised by four founding members: Durjoy Rahman, Nahar Khan, Aumia Khundkar and Fahd Sattar. Rahman is a collector and the founder of the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation. The show is curated by Najmun Nahar Keya and Zihan Khan, who previously guest-curated Chobi Mela, Dhaka's international photography festival.
The first edition brings together more than forty artists, weavers, potters and performers. Visitors can expect gallery presentations, public programmes and dedicated spaces for emerging artists, the newer names still building their careers. The tagline is "Art for All."
The lineup includes Dhali Al Mamoon, Mojahid Musa, Najmun Nahar Keya, Bishwajit Goswami, Ayesha Sultana and Dinar Sultana Putul. Musa is a Dhaka-based sculptor and multidisciplinary artist, born in 1990, who earned an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Chittagong in 2017. Putul is a painter, drawing and installation artist who exhibited at the Dhaka Art Summit in 2023.
The fair is open from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm every day, according to Dhaka Tribune. Children under 10 get in free when accompanied by an adult.
The city already has a major art event. The Samdani Art Foundation has organised the Dhaka Art Summit since 2012. That summit is a non-commercial platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. Art Dhaka adds a sales-focused fair to the calendar, and its first edition will show whether the city's collectors and visitors take to it.
