Mahera Khaleque

Khaleque’s training began at the Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University in Bangladesh. Due to a military dictatorship in her home country, she came to the United States for higher education. Khaleque received an MA in Painting as well as an MA in Visual Communications Design from Purdue University. Later, in 2015, she had received an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the Lamar Dodd School of Art. Khaleque has been teaching at the Dodd since her graduation. She has been accepted to teach Drawing and Painting at the Cortona Summer Program in Italy (2017 and 2020). Khaleque maintains a steady studio practice, participating in juried exhibitions regularly. Her most recent exhibitions include “Gathered” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, “Number Inc: Art of the South” at the Memphis College of Art in Tennessee, “Athens Voices” in Ohio, and “Open Source” at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.

Research Focus

My research has two directions: one addresses the issues of my cultural displacement alongside my integration process in the American culture; the other one embodies the concepts of erasing and the re-writing of history. They are parallel themes in my work, possibly, because my adaptation in the second culture is a constant development, whereas the reason of my displacement began with a re-writing of history in my home country. Many of my images are created from the palimpsest of memories that may echo collective experiences of many in today’s world. Due to my cultural displacement, I view my own immersion, integration and growth as interwoven. I hope to offer visual experiences that may begin with curiosity and end with a sense of empathy in my viewers’ minds.