Md Tokon

Education

Md Tokon spent his early years in Jhenidah and Dhaka. He studied at The Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka University, and moved to New York City in 2001. He obtained his B.A. in Art & Communication Design at The City University of New York. Also He practiced many years painting at The Art Students League of New York under Ronnie Landfield, Mariano del Rosario & Larry Poons.

Career

Tokon started painting from the age of ten and knew that he was fated to be an artist by the time he reached his teens. It is no small accomplishment to travel from one culture to another and to absorb what is universal and important from both cultures; and be able to reflect those insights and to create works of art that resonate meaning to all. Md Tokon has evolved into a very fine emerging young artist who has grasped the essence of the East and the West in his work. His works are generally abstract and are described to have a touch of impressionism. His paintings depict the story of nature, human emotions and it communicates in a mysterious way. He describes his work as lyrical and reflecting atmospheric abstraction.

Md Tokon’s lively and vivacious recent abstractions are predicated on color, dark, light and space. He creates a visual and emotional environment ripe with gesture, layer, raw energy and improvisation. Tokon's is a new world where color feeds other colors and is tempered by a deeply considered meditation on the nature of art. His work has relation with Bob Dylan & Rabindranath Tagore Lyrics, which is simple, pure and organic. Tokon is in love with color and in love with the cities in which he grew up. His paintings mimic the style of the dry river & soil house walls of his childhood home. He developed a significant body of work, influenced by his extensive travels, that is often poetic, meditative and pleasing to the eye. His paintings trap the light within their layers, building up surfaces that are at once opaque and luminescent. The result is highly emotional, spiritual and energetic. It has become clear with the passage of time how Tokon's work reflects life's changes; and strike eternal chords; and how powerfully they connect to the viewer.

A prolific painter, Md Tokon started to paint when he was very young in his native Bangladesh and continues to produce remarkable paintings in New York City. One can easily detect a mature and skillful painter by the way he navigates space and handles the medium. The physicality and immediacy of his paintings are inspired moments of deep reflection; they transport the viewer to a place neither here nor there, a timeless place beyond the horizon.

To witness a Md Tokon painting is to walk into a mindscape full of memories and experiences.

Exhibition

Solo Exhibition: 2015: Light Dark Space - Bengal Art Lounge, Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; 2014: NewPaintings - Leonard Tourne Gallery, Soho, New York; 2013 IGI Fine Art Westport, Connecticut; 2012: The Depth of Space - Leonard Tourne Gallery, Soho, New York; 2012: Silent Spaces - Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; 2011: Revelation of Color & Space - Cyrus Company Soho, New York; 2010: Breathing Color - Grace Art Gallery, Grace Institute New York; 2009: Destination Unknown - Tower 49 Sky Lobby Gallery, New York; 2008: Behr-Thyssen Gallery, SOHO TriBeca, New York; 2006: The City University of New York, 2006.

Art Fairs: 2014: Dhaka Art Summit; 2015: Art Southamptopn; 2014: Dhaka Art Summit; 2012: Dhaka Art Summit.

Selected Recent Group Exhibition: 2015: Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden; Williamsburg Art & Historical Center; Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York;

2014: Queens Museum of Art, New York; The John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago; The Arthur M. Berger Art Gallery, New York; Athena Gallery of Fine Arst, Dhaka;

2013: Queens Museum of Art, New York; Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden; The Arthur M. Berger Art Gallery, New York; Flushing town hall, New York;

2012: Crossing Art Gallery, New York; Bronx Charter School for the Arts gallery, New York; Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; Art Show at Manhattan Borough President Gallery, New York; Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, New York; 2011: Queens Museum of Art, New York; Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; Aicon Gallery 35 Great Jones St, New York; Jorgensen Gallery, University of Connecticut; Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, New York; Clareo Partners Sponsors 'Silent Auction Art Show' Chicago, IL; Annual Concours Show at Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; 'Small work' Art for Japan, Gallery Studio 57 Fine Arts, New York; Lesley Heller Gallery, New York;

2010: Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; Representation by Corporate Art, LLC New Jersey & Pennsylvania; Asian Heritage Month Art Show at District Council 37, New York; Annual Concours Show at Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; 'Small work' Art Show at Manhattan Borough President Gallery, New York;

2009: Clareo Partners Sponsors 'Silent Auction Art Show' Chicago, IL; Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; 18th National Art Exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Dhaka,Bangladesh; Annual Concours Show at Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York; Holiday Art Show at Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, the Art Students League of New York; The AfterSputnik Art Project, New York; Sixth Annual NOHO NY ArtWalk, New York;

2008: Clareo Partners Sponsors 'Silent Auction Art Show' Chicago, IL; Holiday Art Show at Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, the Art Students League of New York; Juried Art exhibition LG Center 13 St. New York; Group Art Exhibition Antagonist Art Movement Exhibition, New York; Juried 9-11 Group Art Exhibition, East Village, New York; Group Art Exhibition at Bangladesh Embassy Gallery, Washington D.C.;

2007: Senior Project Graphic Design Exhibition Grace Gallery, NYCCT, New York; “Personalities” Group Exhibition at NYCCT, New York; Two man Art Exhibition in Queens College, New York; Group Art Exhibition S. E Fein man Art Gallery, SOHO, New York; Group Art Exhibition, National Museum Gallery Bangladesh;

Lectures/Workshop/Artist Talk/ Panel Discussion: 2011: Artist Talk at Queens Museum of Art, New York; 2011: Panel Discussion Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University, New York; 2010: Lecture & workshop, Grace Institute, New York; 2010: Lecture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Nagpur University, India; 2009-2010: Instructor Ronnie Landfield class Assistant, The Art Students League of NewYork;