Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1998
Lives and works in London
contact.laisulhoque@gmail.com
Instagram
2026
Learning to Drive in Birmingham
2026
The Ground Beneath Me
2024
An Ode to All the Flavours
2023
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side
Exhibitions and Screenings
(* indicates solo)
2026Film London Moving Image Takeover, Minor Attractions, London
Another Place, The Burrow at NEU Workshop, Munich
Skin Memory, Midnight’s Third Child, Online
Learning to Drive in Birmingham, Grand Union, Birmingham*
East of the Aldgate Pump, Backyard Biennial: East, Whitechapel Gallery, London
OITIJ-JO Collective: TUFAN, Backyard Biennial: East, Whitechapel Gallery, London
An Ode to All the Flavours, Harlesden High Street, London*
The Ground Beneath Me, East London Art Prize Winner’s Solo Exhibition, Nunnery Gallery, London*
2025The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, East London Art Prize Late, Whitechapel Gallery, London
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Auditorium Nouvelle Vague, Alliance Française de Dhaka*
An Ode to All the Flavours, East London Art Prize, Bow Arts, Nunnery Gallery, London
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Harlesden Video Club’24, Harlesden High Street, London
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, EXPERIMENTA at Ark, Ark Foundation for the Arts, FGI Auditorium, Sevasi
2024The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, EXPERIMENTA 2024, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore
An Ode to All the Flavours, a day-long Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London*
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Screened at Piccadilly Lights screen, London (as part of CIRCA Prize)
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Screened at Limes Kurfürstendamm screen, Berlin (as part of CIRCA Prize)
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Screened at Essilor Luxottica screen in Cadorna Square, Milan (as part of CIRCA Prize)
An Ode to All the Flavours, Solo Exhibition, Kobi Nazrul Centre, London *
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Solo Screening, Project Banani 18, Dhaka *
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Solo Screening, Studio 6/6, Dhaka *
The Purpose was to Document the Other Side, Solo Screening, EkshoEk, Dhaka *
Shorts: Joyful Lands, Joyful Bodies, Chronic Youth Film Festival, Group Screening, Barbican Centre, London
I don’t Call Enough but I’m Here Now, Solo Exhibition, Oitij-jo, London *
2023Bhalo Basha, Group Screening, Toynbee Hall, London
ELO MELO Festival, Oitij-jo x Whitechapel Gallery, Group Screening, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Molasses Vases, Group Exhibition, hARTslane, London2022Ajker, Group Exhibition, Oitij-jo, London
Degree Show, Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, London
Press/Reviews
2026The art of the wheel on The Dispatch (Birmingham) by Rachel Segal Hamilton
Laisul Hoque @ Nunnery Gallery on MOV.R by Oisín McGilloway
Art shows to leave the house for in February 2026 on Dazed by Ashleigh Kane
This Spring’s Must-See Contemporary Art Exhibitions on British Vogue by Mahoro Seward
London's Finest Exhibitions and Gallery Shows on Because Magazine by Matteo Pini
Laisul Hoque's 'The Ground Beneath Me' – capturing the moments national histories meet on East End Review by Sarah Birch
2025Tender Archives, How three emerging artists are reinterpreting South Asia on Harper's Bazaar India by Upasana Das
30 moments for 30 years, Artist Spotlight: Laisul Hoque
by Bow Arts
Private Histories, Public Spaces: Laisul Hoque on the Vulnerability of Personal Art on MOLA by Ella Monnerat
Laisul Hoque’s ode to flavours of his past on The Business Standard by Eshadi Sharif
Laisul Hoque Wins The 2025 East London Art Prize on SHOWstudio
Laisul Hoque Wins The 2025 East London Art Prize on FAD magazine by Mark Westall
2024Laisul Hoque @ Whitechapel on The White Pube by Zarina MuhammadThe Purpose Was to Document the Other Side on The White Pube by Zarina Muhammad
The Purpose Was to Document the Other Side: A Tale of Mediating Generational Gaps on
The Daily Star (BD) by Tasrifa Trisha
Writing
2026 The first time I felt art in my nose, The Guardian
2023Time Is Moving At A Different Pace Back Home: Leaving Behind A Version Of Us, Small World City, Issue 01
Talks/Panels
2026UCL x Bow Arts knowledge exchange labs, panel discussion with artist Laisul Hoque and Yang Zou, and UCL PhD candidate Vincent Hasselbach, UCL East Cinema Room, London
Laisul Hoque in conversation with Zarina Muhammad, on exploring microhistories and memory through literature in the context of Bangladesh’s political changes in 2024–25, Nunnery Gallery, London
2025Laisul Hoque in Conversation with Zarina Muhammad expanding on his East London Art Prize-winning installation, ‘An Ode to All the Flavours’ (2024), Nunnery Gallery, London
(video link)
2024Exploration of “tradition” and “authenticity” in the context of hybrid cultures, An Ode to All the Flavours, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Joyful Lands, Joyful Bodies, Chronic Youth Film Festival, Barbican Centre, London
Prizes and Fellowships
2025 - 2026Flamin Fellowship at Film London
2025 East London Art Prize, Winner
2024 CIRCA Prize, Finalist
Education
2020 - 2022
MA in Contemporary Photography: Practices and
Philosophies, Central Saint Martins, UAL, London
2016 - 2020
BA in English Literature, North South University, Dhaka
Trusteeship
2026
Whitechapel Gallery
Learning to Drive in Birmingham
Grand Union, Birmingham
Press
Installation views by Tegen Kimbley; film stills by Laisul Hoque.
The exhibition comprises a 30 minute film projection installed into Grand Union’s gallery space. Transforming and coating the window frames with tinted car window film, the space presents an altered view of the Birmingham landscape.
In ‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’ Laisul, a Bangladeshi immigrant now living in the UK, attempts to navigate Birmingham through driving lessons, conversations in cars, and phone calls from home.
Filmed inside vehicles and among construction sites, blocked roads, and sprawling South Asian neighbourhoods on the city’s outskirts, the work reflects on mobility, belonging, and displacement, while offering a glimpse into the lives of Bangladeshi communities who have made Birmingham their home. ‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’ captures the stories, histories and experiences of the Birmingham Bengali community and the significant part they played in the Bangladesh liberation movement during the 1970s.
Laisul’s process of engagement unfolds through intimate exchanges of services, labour and time, revealing his particular experiences of the complexity and proximity of growing up through political tensions in Bangladesh - and how that differs to those of different generations of migrants in Birmingham.
The film offers sensitive and intimate understandings of the migrant experience in navigating a new city: how cultural exchange, labour and identity are interwoven into the fabrics of a place merging histories and cultures.
By learning to navigate Birmingham, Laisul journeys through city road systems, personal memories and local archives, thoughtfully interweaving captured moments into a film that carefully collects and holds these stories in shared and collective narratives.
This work is supported by Arts Council England, Bow Arts East London Art Prize and Grand Union. With thanks to MJM Bespoke for fabrication and installation.
Exhibition Continues
4 July - 3 October 2026
Wednesday, 2–5pm, and Thursday to Saturday, 12–5pm
Online Screenings
3-6 July 2026
2-5 October 2026
Credits
Subtitles: Afra Nuarey
Soundscape and Score: Abid Farhan
Co-Producers: Jo Capper, Hannah Wallis
Featuring:
Mehrul Bari S Chowdhury (telephone conversation)
Harun Al Faruque (driving instructor)
Nilupa Yasmin
Muhammad Ali (Knights of the Raj)
Tony Huq (archive interview)
Archive Materials: Media Archive for Central England
Additional Archive Materials:
The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
The Margaret Thatcher Foundation
Knights of the Raj (Soul City Arts)
50 Years of Bangla Brummies (Purbanat)
Community Archive Citizen-generated photographs and videos compiled by volunteers during the July 2024 Mass Uprising in Bangladesh
Special Thanks: Sophie Hill, Alex Paveley, Duncan Poulton, Ian Francis, Murad Khan (Purbanat), Sue Winn (MACE)
More Information
https://www.grand-union.org.uk/whats-on/learning-to-drive-in-birmingham-laisul-hoque
Learning to Drive in Birmingham
Minor Attractions 2026, London
Film London
Moving Image Takeover
Screening view of Learning to Drive in Birmingham, Room 109, The Newman Hotel, Minor Attractions 2026, London