Rajeeb Samdani

Rajeeb Samdani (born 28 March 1974) is a Bangladeshi industrialist and art collector. He is currently the managing director of Golden Harvest Group,[1][2] a leading Bangladeshi conglomerate,[3] and the founder and trustee of Samdani Art Foundation which produces the Dhaka Art Summit.[4][5] He is the founding committee member and co-chair of the Tate Museum, United Kingdom, South Asian Acquisition Committee.[6] He is a member of Tate's International Council and founding members of Harvard University Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute's Arts Advisory Council, USA.[7] They are also members of Alserkal Avenue Programming Committee, Dubai and advisory council members of Art Dubai.[8][9]

Rajeeb Samdani
Born (1974-03-28) 28 March 1974
Dhaka, Bangladesh
NationalityBangladeshi
OccupationBusinessman
Spouse(s)Nadia Samdani

Career

He started his career as a commodity broker with Stemcor. Over the years, his company, Golden Harvest, expanded its business into information technology, commodities, logistics, food processing, agriculture, dairy, aviation, insurance, banking, infrastructure development and real estate.[10][11][12][13][14] He is also the chairman of Dubai-based financial institution Gulf International Finance Limited.[15]

Golden Harvest has expanded business into logistics industry with its Japanese partner Nippon Express, the largest logistic company in Asia and the fourth largest logistic company in the world.[16][17][18] In partnership with Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, Golden Harvest has launched the francise of Domino's Pizza in Bangladesh in 2019.[19] Golden Harvest has signed a joint venture agreement with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in 2019 to set up country's first cold chain network.[20]

Rajeeb Samdani is a trustee and secretary general of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, founder of the Alvina Samdani Trust & Taher Ahmed Choudhury Charitable Hospital. Along with his wife Nadia Samdani, Rajeeb Samdani collects artworks from all over the world and has over 2000 modern and contemporary art.[21]

Art Foundation

Samdani Art Foundation was established in 2011 by Rajeeb Samdani and his wife Nadia Samdani.[22] The foundation is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh and supports country's contemporary art and architecture.[23] The Samdani Art Foundation is a donor for the 56th International Biennale di Venezia, supporting the projects of artists Naeem Mohaiemen and Raqs Media Collective in the main Biennale exhibition:All the World's Futures.[24][25][26] Through the Samdani Art Foundation, he funded the Kunsthalle Basel's first exhibition of a South Asian artist, Naeem Mohaiemen in 2014.[27] Bangladeshi-British artist Rana Begum's first major institutional solo exhibition at Parasol Unit, London was also supported through Samdani Art Foundation in 2016.[28] They also support Bangladeshi artists to produce works for exhibitions. Some of the supported exhibitions are the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014, Shanghai Biennale 2016, Speak Lokal, Kunsthalle, Zurich,etc.[29][30][31] The foundation supports emerging artists and architects with the biannual Samdani Art and Samdani Architecture awards.[32][33][34] Another program of the foundation, The Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum launched on 13 April 2017 supports the work of Bangladesh's independently established and self-funded art collectives and initiatives.[35]

The Samdanis have organised the Dhaka Art Summit, a non-profit event funded by Samdani Art Foundation from 2012.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] Dhaka Art Summit takes place in every two years at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, People's Republic of Bangladesh and considered to be the largest South Asian art event.[44][45][46] The 5th edition of the Dhaka Art Summit took place from 7 to 15 February 2020 with footfall of 477,000 visitors.[47]

Their new initiative is the Srihatta—Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park, which is the forthcoming permanent art space established under the Samdani Art Foundation.[48] Srihatta will be the first permanent dedicated space for the Foundation's programming and exhibition activities. The centre is designed by Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, who won the Agha Khan Award in 2016. This is also the country's first sculpture park and dedicated art space for international modern and contemporary art.[49]

Awards and recognition

Rajeeb Samdani is well known for his local and international art collection.[50][51][52][53][54] Artworks from their collection have travelled to major exhibitions, such as documenta 14 (2017); Shanghai Biennale (2017); Office for Contemporary Art, Norway (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Kunstsammlung Nordhrhein, Düsseldorf (2016); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2014).[55][56][57]

Samdani and his wife were the first and only South Asians to receive the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage award in 2017 and were recognized on the Top 200 Collectors list by Artnews from 2015–2019, the Power 100 list in 2015-2020 by Art Review and The World's Top 100 Art Collectors 2016 by ArtNet News.[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66]

He was invited to speak at leading institutions including the Royal Ontario Museum of Art, UC Berkeley, Harvard University and the Private Museums Summit.[67][68][69][70]

References

  1. Saha, Suman (1 January 2012). "New Year's Resolutions". The Daily Star.
  2. "Golden Harvest takes up $33m expansion plan". The News Today. 15 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012.
  3. . bdreports. 10 December 2013.
  4. Master strokes Dhaka Art Summit in April. The Daily Star. 7 February 2012
  5. Dhaka Art Summit – a beginning!. The Wall, 6 May 2012
  6. Bangladeshi Rajeeb Samdani appointed founding member. The Daily Star. 7 November 2012.
  7. . Harvard University South Asian Arts Council 9 December 2015
  8. "Rajeeb Samdani". 21 Anniversary Supplement. The Daily Star. 2012.
  9. Shah, Gayatri Rangachari (4 December 2013). "Putting Bangladesh on the Arts Map". The New York Times.
  10. Grey Advertising Bangladesh Limited was Assigned as a Creative Agency of Golden Harvest Ice-cream. Bangladesh Brand Forum November 2013
  11. STOCK & CORPORATE. The Financial Express. 29 May 2013
  12. . The News Today.
  13. "Nippon Express sets foot in Bangladesh". The Daily Star. 19 April 2012.
  14. "Nippon Express arranges opening ceremony". The Financial Express. Dhaka. 19 April 2012.
  15. "Correction: Nippon Express 4th largest global 3PL in 2017".
  16. . Dominos Pizza now in Bangladesh.
  17. . Cold Chain enters into joint venture agreement with IFC.
  18. Breaking New Ground for Contemporary Art in Bangladesh Sothebys, 6 February 2018
  19. Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani Independent Collectors, 29 January 2018
  20. How to See from Somewhere Else – the 4th Dhaka Art Summit Frieze, 12 February 2018
  21. The Art Newspaper
  22. Financial Times
  23. 5 Art Collectors You Probably Didn’t Know Were Involved In The 56th Venice Biennale Larry's list
  24. Prisoner of Shothik ItihashKunsthalle Basel
  25. Rana Begum: The Space Between Parasol Unit
  26. Artist Project Support kochimuzirisbiennale
  27. Speak Lokal Kunsthalle Zurich
  28. Bangladeshi Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury Wins Samdani Art Award Harpers Bazaar Arabia, 4 February 2018
  29. Bangladeshi Art and Architecture Go GlobalThe Daily Star, 4 February 2018
  30. Samdani Architecture Award Winner Announced The Daily Star, 19 September 2018
  31. Re-Examinations on the Function of Art: Dhaka Art Summit 2018The Artling, 5 February 2018
  32. Dhaka to Host Bangladesh’s First Art Summit Boulin Art Info 22 March 2012
  33. Bangladesh Strives to be the New ‘India’ of Art. The Wall Street Journal. 10 April 2012
  34. Taka Art Summit. The Times of India, 7 April 2012
  35. Dhaka Art Summit. dna 16 February 2014
  36. WHERE LINES WENT FOR WALKS. The Daily Star. 13 February 2014
  37. Dispatch: Dhaka Art Summit art agenda 27 February 2014
  38. Second Dhaka Art Summit announced. The Sunday Guardian. 9 November 2013
  39. Samdani Art Foundation to stage second edition of Dhaka Art Summit. The Economic Times 5 November 2013
  40. Dhaka (Art Summit): The cultural capital of South AsiaDhaka Tribune, 1 February 2018
  41. Saat Saath Arts
  42. Art destination Dhaka. The Indian Express. 18 February 2014
  43. Art summit in Bangladesh showcases works of South Asian artists. Business Standard. 10 February 2014
  44. Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani dna 5 January 2014
  45. Art in the air. livemint. 31 January 2014
  46. Dhaka Art Summit: don’t call it an art fair. The Art News Paper. 23 December 2013
  47. 2015 TOP 200 COLLECTORS
  48. . ArtNet News. 15 June 2016.
  49. Power 100ArtReview
  50. . Power 100.
  51. . Art Collector Top 200.
  52. . Royal Ontario Museum Announces Fall 2018 Lineup of Engaging Talks.
  53. . UC Berkeley Events.
  54. . Rajeeb and Nadia Samdani talking about Bangladeshi Art Scene at Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University 2019':.
  55. . Highlights from the Second Edition of the Private Museum Conference.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.