Plucked From The Womb Like Something Tart brings together the work of two Bangladeshi- American artists who share the experience of being first-generation immigrants since childhood. Visual artist and writer, Riya Hamid was raised in East New York, Brooklyn and now lives in Berlin. Her work seeks to augment the dialogue of class in relation to opportunity and livelihood from the feminine Bengali diasporic experience. She embodies and reflects her contemplation of the world in all aspects of her work with presence. Asif Hoque left his South Florida home to earn his degree from Pratt Institute and now lives and works in Brooklyn. His body of work is a reflection of the plurality of his identity. Through the use of mixed media, he builds friction through application of layers and texture in order to facilitate a conversation. Both have gracefully transformed what was a heightened experience of childhood alienation into an evolved existential exploration.

Riya Hamid is a poet and visual artist hailing from Chittagong Bangladesh. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, and currently living in Berlin, Germany, her work explores the meandering intersections of brown femininity and invisible trauma with the dynamics of class and displacement — synthesizing memories from childhood as a first generation immigrant with contemporary reflections on interpersonal relationships, longing, and all that is ordinary. Through her work, she seeks to understand the symbiotic distance between self and the external.

Asif Hoque is a 27 year old Pratt Institute graduate, living and working in Brooklyn, New York. As a Bangladeshi immigrant, who was raised in South Florida, Hoque’s paintings attempts to figuratively and stylistically combine aspects of multicultural identity. His early work highlights his fascination with classical fine arts, but with the progression of his skill and his self-discovery, Hoque challenges his audience to explore aspects of self that are authentic. Hoque hopes to address the unique experience of living in the “in between”.