Artist Spotlight: Tafsia Muzib Dana

For Bangladeshi student Tafsia Muzib Dana, painting is a way to remember what would otherwise be forgotten. 

The world around us is constantly changing. Sometimes all that remains of an environment we once cherished are our memories of it. Visual art can be a powerful tool for exploring these memories, recalling a place that no longer exists.

In her work, Tafsia Muzib Dana investigates her memories of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh where she grew up. Lamenting the pace of change in her home city, she paints as "a way to remember what was there and preserve what had once been". Adopting a bright palette of viridian green, lemon yellow and tangerine orange, Dana says that colour helps her "to guide myself through" memories of the city. In Dhaka, "when you get out into the street, there are so many colours, just screaming."

Moving to the UK in 2021 to complete the Art Foundation course at Leeds Arts University, followed by a BA in Fine Art, Dana returns to Dhaka during university holidays. On a recent visit to her old neighbourhood, she discovered skyscrapers where she once lived. "It was very strange. There used to be these nice old houses with a very specific kind of architecture," she recalls. Mournful for the loss of these traditional buildings, Dana remembers the "beautiful motifs" that they used to have on their window grills.

Recently, Dana made a painting on an old wooden box that was lying around her studio. Titled ‘Out of Place’ it typifies her approach. With plywood sheets used to divide the space into compartments, it depicts a series of rooms. It was inspired by the house where she grew up, which no longer exists in the form she remembers it. During the rainy season, all of the furniture was eaten away by termites. "I went back to a completely empty space," she explains. "I thought I would make a painting of how this place used to look...I had to remember where everything was."

We discuss her painting process. "It is difficult for me to make a strict plan," she explains. Paintings sometimes start with her blocking in abstract shapes, allowing the image to develop over time. "I see what works with the composition and the colours. I don't have an idea of how it will end up. It is interesting to see how the composition changes."

Drawing is central to Dana's approach to painting. She uses a sketchbook to develop ideas. "I use it as a way of remembering," she says. If a drawing feels "interesting" to her, she continues working on it. An idea might be sketched out multiple times before it is ready to be used as a starting point for a painting. However, this is not the end of the process. 'It [the painting] begins with a drawing, but does not stay with it," she explains.

Dana also makes dry point etchings, enjoying the unpredictability of this printmaking process. "You're drawing into a plate and spending so much time on it, but you don't know how it is going to turn out. I think this really feeds into my practice."

In Dana's paintings, similar motifs reoccur over and over. "It happens quite unintentionally, but I guess because these things are so frequent in my life, they appear subconsciously in my work." Cats feature frequently, "not because they are so adorable" but because these animals "change their shape depending on how they are feeling". Cats help to establish the mood of the work. In some paintings, they create an atmosphere of mystery and unease, while in others they suggest warmth and relaxation.

After four years at Leeds Arts University, Dana is sad to see her course come to an end. "It feels like home now because I have been here so long," she says. Over the summer, there are plans to travel to France and maybe Italy, where she will see the work of the Impressionist painters in person. "I feel like I owe it all to the Impressionists." She also intends to find a studio in Leeds, where she will continue to develop her work.

As Dhaka continues to change, Dana's work records what made the city important to her. These vibrant paintings preserve the past, even as it is threatened with erasure.

Credits

This article was written by Isaac Nugent and originally appeared in the a-n Degree Shows Guide 2025. Reprinted with kind permission from Isaac Nugent and The Artists Information Company 

Images:

Tafsia Muzib Dana, After it Rained, 100 x 100 cm, oil on canvas, 2025 (detail)

Tafsia Muzib Dana, Out of Place, 47 x 39.5 x 7 cm, oil on wooden box, 2025

Tafsia Muzib Dana, Another Sunset, 145 x 96 cm, oil on canvas, 2024

Tafsia Muzib Dana, Close to Home, 70 x 50 cm, oil on linen, 2025