written by: News Desk
‘Lobongolotika’ seeks to move beyond the long-established tendency to portray women’s lives primarily through narratives of sacrifice, endurance, suffering, and adversity. Here, a woman is not merely someone who struggles against circumstances; she is also a creator, dreamer, maker, and an independent individual capable of determining the course of her own life.
A group exhibition titled ‘Lobongolotika’ is currently underway at Edge Gallery, Bay’s Edgewater, Dhaka. Bringing together 23 women artists, the exhibition explores women’s freedom, inner strength, aspirations, and joy through painting, drawing, tapestry, sculpture, installation, and other artistic media. The exhibition opened on 14 August and will continue until 4 September.
In the established narratives surrounding women in art and literature, pain, sacrifice, and struggle have often occupied a central position. ‘Lobongolotika’ steps away from that familiar framework to present another dimension of womanhood—one that encompasses the desire to seek one’s own light, the ability to create one’s own space, and the confidence to embrace personal achievements without hesitation.
The exhibition does not deny women’s lived experiences; rather, it seeks to discover creative strength and independent agency within those experiences. Women are therefore not confined to predetermined social roles; they emerge as authors of their own identities and possibilities.
The title ‘Lobongolotika’ itself carries a symbolic suggestion of the exhibition’s central idea. The softness and sweetness of the traditional confection, combined with the sharpness of clove, resonates with the multifaceted nature of the feminine self. Softness and strength, sensitivity and confidence, sweetness and resistance—these seemingly contrasting qualities contribute to the complexity and richness of womanhood. Across the exhibition, this duality finds expression through colour, line, sculptural form, texture, material, and spatial composition.
The 23 participating artists come from different generations and bring diverse experiences and artistic approaches to the exhibition. Their practices span painting, drawing, tapestry, sculpture, and installation, allowing ideas surrounding identity and freedom to emerge through distinct visual languages.
Personal experience, desire, memory, joy, the body, relationships, and social realities appear in different ways throughout their works. Yet beneath this diversity runs a shared current: the right to live on one’s own terms and the freedom to express one’s creative self.
In this sense, ‘Lobongolotika’ is more than a group exhibition. It creates a multilayered artistic space where women’s individual voices, perspectives, and experiences can come together without being reduced to a single narrative.
One of the exhibition’s significant aspects is that female vulnerability is not treated as the sole subject of artistic representation. Instead, the exhibition foregrounds a woman who can transform her experiences into creative expression.
Through colour, line, form, texture, volume, material, and space, the artists translate their thoughts and experiences into visual language. Once personal experience enters the realm of art, it becomes both an act of self-expression and a point of dialogue with broader social realities.
The exhibition opened on 14 August at Edge Gallery, Bay’s Edgewater. Bringing together works by 23 artists, it offers an opportunity to reconsider women’s strength beyond conventional representations. ‘Lobongolotika’ is therefore not simply a women-centred exhibition; it also invites viewers to rethink the ways in which women are seen and represented.
Here, women are not only the subjects of art but also its makers—constructing their own meanings through experience, emotion, imagination, and creative practice.
Ultimately, ‘Lobongolotika’ is not an exhibition of melancholy. It is a celebration of strength, freedom, joy, and creativity. The works reveal the strength within softness, the sharpness within sweetness, and the immense creative possibilities contained within individual identity. Through diverse artistic practices, the exhibition makes visible a complex, vibrant, and multidimensional vision of womanhood.
Participating Artists
Bipasha Hayat, Maksuda Iqbal Nipa, Sheikh Farhana Parvin Tumpa, Farida Zaman, Mukti Bhowmik, Sigma Haque Angkan, Israt Jahan Proma, Nargis Poly, Sima Mondal, Ivy Zaman, Nur Munjerin Rimjhim, Suborna Morsheada, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Rokeya Sultana, Suriyea Rahman, Kuhu Plamondon, Shakirun Nahar Kanon, Tanjim Jahan Laz, Lekh Nesa Khatun, Sharmin Akter Lina, Tarana Halim, Tulsi Rani Das, and Vinita Karim.
Exhibition: Lobongolotika
Participants: 23 women artists
Mediums: Painting, drawing, tapestry, sculpture, and installation
Dates: 14 August–4 September 2026
Time: 10:00 AM–8:00 PM
Venue: Edge Gallery, Bay’s Edgewater, Ground Floor, NE(N)12, North Avenue, Gulshan-2, Dhaka
