About Joya Barua
Joya Barua is a Bangladesh-based multidisciplinary conceptual artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, photography, mixed media, installation, and other experimental forms of visual expression. Her research-driven practice explores the intersections of nature, human existence, identity, memory, social realities, and environmental crises. Working across diverse mediums and visual languages, she investigates the complexities of human experience, the construction of truth and perception, and the evolving relationships between individuals, society, and the natural world. Through her work, she seeks to question established narratives, examine layered realities, and expand the boundaries of contemporary artistic expression.
Her artistic journey is rooted in an ongoing process of self-inquiry and a profound engagement with lived reality. During her postgraduate studies, Joya Barua underwent a significant conceptual shift, recognizing that reality is not confined to the visible world but is equally shaped by memory, emotion, silence, and the unseen dimensions of human experience. This transformation led her from observation to inquiry, establishing a practice grounded in critical reflection, visual research, and conceptual exploration.
At the core of her work is an investigation of contemporary social, humanitarian, and existential issues. Her long-term engagement with the Rohingya community has profoundly influenced her artistic practice, inspiring projects that address forced displacement, collective memory, identity, resilience, and human rights. Alongside these concerns, she explores climate change, ecological fragility, cultural heritage, and the complex relationship between the natural world and human consciousness. Rather than treating art as a purely aesthetic pursuit, Barua regards it as a critical language through which truth, memory, history, and lived experience can be questioned, interpreted, and reimagined.
A defining conceptual framework within her practice is the philosophical relationship between Prakriti (Nature) and Purusha (Consciousness), explored through the symbolic structure of the seven chakras. She interprets the chakra system not as a religious doctrine but as a metaphorical map of human transformation-from survival to self-realization, from material existence to expanded consciousness. Through colour, light, the human body, aura, and symbolic forms, she constructs visual narratives that investigate the psychological, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of human existence.
Her practice has been enriched through participation in numerous interdisciplinary workshops and art camps, including Water, Air, Soil, Fire and Earth in Danger, Contemporary Documentary Approaches, Crack International Art Camp, the One-Minute Video Workshop organized by the Bangladesh Short Film Forum, and watercolor workshops. These experiences have strengthened her experimental approach while deepening her engagement with research-based artistic methodologies.
In addition to her visual arts practice, Barua was actively involved in theatre for four years. This experience significantly shaped her understanding of embodiment, gesture, presence, and performativity, which continues to inform her performance, installation, and multidisciplinary works.
Her work has been exhibited in both national and international exhibitions, including the Birla Academy of Art and Culture (India), Adıyaman University Fine Arts Gallery (Türkiye), the International Miniature Art Fest 2021, and major national exhibitions such as the Youth Art Exhibition and Young Art Exhibition in Bangladesh. She has also contributed as a Visual Researcher to the Karnaphuli Art Project and the Chandranath Research Team, integrating artistic practice with field research and visual documentation.
Following her postgraduate studies, Barua conducted research with the Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar through a humanitarian organization. This experience evolved into her long-term artistic and research initiative, Art Against Rohingya Genocide, where she works at the intersection of contemporary art, visual research, and human rights advocacy. She currently serves as the Social Welfare Secretary of the Cox’s Bazar Art Club.
Through painting, photography, installation, performance, and research-based artistic practice, Joya Barua continues to investigate the dynamic relationship between inner consciousness and external reality. Her work seeks to create spaces where philosophy, ecology, memory, and lived experience converge, inviting viewers to engage with the deeper questions of identity, existence, and our shared humanity. She aspires to develop a visual language that not only reflects the complexities of the present but also endures as a meaningful cultural and historical testimony for future generations.
Drawing and Painting
• The Earth (2017-2018)
• Soul and Nature (2019-2026)
• The becoming (2020-2021)
• The Rebirth (2025)
• The inner seed (series work, 2026)
• The Stand (2026)
Visual Research:
The River karnafully: the Cultural and aesthetically impact on Visual art. A project of research and publication cell, University of Chittagong, 2020.
CHANDRANATH: The Cultural and Archival impact on Visual art. A project of research and publication cell, Ekanna Yog ( 2016-2021).
Installation Art:
• Soul and Nature (2020)
• Dwelling in the concealed name (2021)
Performance Art:
• Dwelling in the concealed name (2021)
• The world of the three perfections ( 2022)
• The melody of the Universe (2022)
Performing Art:
• “Buro Saliker Gare roya” comedy written by Michael Madhusudan Dutta and Directed by Ahmed Iqbal Haider (2015, 2016)
• “Oedipus” Greek tragedy written by Sophocles and Directed by Ahmed Iqbal Haider ( 2015, 2016, 2017)
• “Taranga Bhanga” written by Syed Oyaliwallah and Directed by Ahmed Iqbal Haider ( 2017, 2018)
Major Exhibitions:
exposition ocean and rhythm of ocean, Based on Bangladesh
Organized by Bijoy Art Gallery, In Collaboration with: Cox’s Bazar Art Club
Organized by Ekanna Yog, Chitrobhasha,Cox’s Bazar Art Club.
Organized by Ekanna Yog, Chitrobhasha.
a Group Exhibition
Organized by Cox’s Bazar Art Club
Organized by Dot to line, Zobra Art Village and Cox’s Bazar Art Club.
Organized by Chitrobhasha
organised by Cox’s Bazar Art Club
organised by Cox’s Bazar Art Club
Organized by Gallery Hamiduzzaman
Organized by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Dhaka
Organized by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Dhaka
Organized by Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Organized by ‘CRACK TRUST’ Kustiya
Organized by Bangladesh Shilpokola Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Organized by Chittagong Art Club, Bangladesh.
Organized by UNHCR, Cox’s Bazar Art Club, Liberation War Museum, ROHINGYATOGRAPHER, AECID. COOPERACION ESPANOLA.
Organized by International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, SAVE, GIJTR
Organised by Rohingya Refugee Response, Cox’s Bazar Art Club and others organizations.
Organised by ROHINGYA REFUGEE RESPONSE, BANGLADESH,
SAFE+ 2,
COX’S BAZAR FOOD SECURITY SECTOR,
LIVELIHOODS SKILLS DEVELOPMENT SECTOR AND
COX’S BAZAR ART CLUB
organized by district Administration & S.M. Sultan Foundation, Narail.
organized by Gallery Hamiduzzaman
Dedicated To Artist Hamiduzzaman Khan
organized by Adiyaman University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Turkey,
organized by Kajrai Art, Kolkata at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 2026
