ABOUT
Protick works between photography and moving image, charting two intersecting courses. One remains abstract, sensorial, and experimental; the other traces the socio-political cartography of Bangladesh and the wider Bengal region. Protick’s works are built on long-term surveys that follow infrastructures—railroads, waterways, industrial corridors, extraction, architectures—as conduits through which imperial histories sediment and reappear.
His works carry a quiet suspension, distilled to minimal form unfolding into expansive horizons. Time is sensed not as a straight line but as something that bends—slowing, looping, breaking and rejoining. Protick’s practice joins the roles of image-maker, teacher, and occasional curator. A graduate of Pathshala, where he has taught for over twelve years, he co-curates Chobi Mela and in 2024 co-curated the 8th edition of Colomboscope.
Sarker Protick’s work has received numerous recognitions and fellowships, including the After Nature Prize awarded by C/O Berlin & Crespo Foundation, Joop Swart Masterclass, Light Work Residency, Magnum Foundation Fund, Foam Talent Amsterdam, World Press Photo Award etc. His works can be found in the collections of Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE, KNMA, India and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE.
Protick is represented by Shrine Empire in Delhi.
Some of his selected exhibitions include ‘11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art , Brisbane (2024 - 2025), Australia, ‘Awngar’ at C/O Berlin, solo show, Berlin, Germany, (2024); ‘Spaces of Separation’ at Bristol Photo, solo show, Bristol, UK (2024); ‘At the Edge of Land,’ Jameel Arts Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2023-24); ‘To Enter The Sky’, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2023); 2024, ‘Synaesthetic Notations,’ Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India (2023); “Nirobodhi / Till Time Stands Still,” solo show, Shrine Empire, New Delhi, India (2022), 32nd Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), Singapore (2021); Afterglow, Yokohama Triennial, Yokohama, Japan (2020); Nach Uns Die Sintflut, Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna, Austria (2020); Noor Der Licht, Generation Z: Tell me, Gronigen, The Netherlands (2020); Stories of Earthly Survival, Ci.CLO Biennial, Porto, Portugal (2019); (Dis)Place, Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art, Korean Cultural Center, Delhi, India (2018); Breaking Point, Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Germany (2018); ‘Relics’, Esplanade Visual Arts Center, Singapore Art Week, Singapore (2018); Paris Photo, Solo show, East Wing Gallery, France (2017); Solo: ‘What Remains’ at Latvina Museum of Photography, Latvia (2016); Daegu Photo Biennale, South Korea.
EXHIBITIONS
2025 Solo: Shadows in the Sky II at Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
2025 Solo: Shadows in the Sky, Shrine Empire, Delhi, India
2024 Solo: ‘Awngar’ at C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2024 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia
2024 Solo: ‘Spaces of Separation’ at Bristol Photo, Bristol, UK
2024 Asia Now Paris’, Paris, France
2024 Jameel Art Center: At the Edge of Land, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2024 Old Stories New Magic, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia
2024 Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, [Canceled], Germany
2023 Art Jameel: At the Edge of Land, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2023 Serendipity Art Festival, Goa, India
2023 ‘To Enter The Sky’, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2022 Solo: নিরবধি / Nirobodhi (Till Time Stand Still) by Sarker Protick. Shrine Empire, Delhi, India
2022 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Philadelphia, USA
2022 ‘TIBRO’ [Pathshala’s 23 Years Anniversary], Dhaka, Bangladesh
2021 32nd Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), Singapore
2021 ‘Growing Like a Tree’, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE
2020 Yokohama Triennale 2020, Afterglow, Yokohama, Japan
2020 Nach Uns Die Sintflut, Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna, Austria
2020 Related Realities, BL2020, Gallery Himmelblau, Tampere, Finland
2020 Dead Can Dance: The Lock Up Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2020 Noor Der Licht, Generation Z: Tell me, Gronigen, The Netherlands
2019 Solo: Of River and Lost Lands, Impact Doc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2019 Bruised: Art, Action and Ecology in Asia’, RMIT Gallery. Melbourne, Australia
2019 Stories of Earthly Survival, Ci.CLO Biennial, Porto, Portugal
2018 (Dis)Place, Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art, Korean Cultural center, Delhi
2018 Temporary Certainty, 4A Centre for contemporary Asia Art. Sydney, Australia
2018 Breaking Point, Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Germany
2018 ‘Relics’, Esplanade Visual Arts Center, Singapore Art Week. Singapore
2017 Paris Photo, Solo show, East Wing Gallery, France
2017 Dispatches The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina, USA
2017 Chobi Mela Photo Festival IX, Bangladesh
2016 Solo: ‘What Remains’ at Latvina Museum of Photography, Latvia
2016 Daegu Photo Biennale, South Korea
2016 Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India
2016 Art Dubai, Eat Wing, Dubai, UAE
2015 Photo Quai Biannual, Paris, France
2015 Encontros da Imagem, Burga, Portugal
2015 Delhi Photo Festival, Delhi, India
2015 Obscura Festival of Photography, Penang, Malaysia
2015 Defying the laws of gravity, Richmix London, United Kingdom
2014 Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh
2014 Eyes on Bangladesh, New York, USA
2013 Noorderlicht Photography Festival ’20 By 20′ Exhibition, The Netherlands
2013 Chobi Mela VII International Photography Festival, Bangladesh
2013 Photovisa Festival, Moscow, Russia
2013 Festival of Promenades Photographiques Vendome, France
2013 Organ Vida Photo Festival, Croatia
2012 Noorderlicht Photo festival, Gronigen, The Netherlands
2012 Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh
2012 World Bank Art Program: Dhaka, Delhi, Washington
GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS / RESIDENCIES
2012 Prix Mark Grosset pour les écoles internationales de photographie
2013 Winner of World Bank Art Program
2014 ‘Ones to Watch’ – (featured), British Journal of Photography
2014 World Press Photo Joop Swart Master class
2015 Photo District News’s 30 Emerging Photographer
2015 World Press Photo Award (For ‘What Remains’)
2016 Residency at Gibellina Photo Road
2017 Winner of The Australian Photobook of the Year Grand Prize
2018 Recipient of Magnum Foundation Fund
2019 Khoj – Curatorial Intensive South Asia.
2019 Light Work Residency, Syracuse, New York.
2021 Foam Talent, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2024 C/O Berlin, After Nature Prize. Berlin, Germany.
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