Aashish Kiphayet's 'Brown Eyes Dream' opens at Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC

The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University proudly presents Brown Eyes Dream, a powerful new multimedia exhibition by Bangladeshi visual artist and documentary photographer Aashish Kiphayet. Featured as part of the prestigious NEXT Festival 2025, the exhibition opened last week at the Corcoran's historic Flagg Building in downtown Washington, DC.

Kiphayet, a graduate student in the New Media Photojournalism program, brings a deeply personal and politically resonant perspective to the gallery. Brown Eyes Dream examines the complex emotional responses of the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United States to the violent political upheaval in their homeland during the summer of 2024. Blending documentary photography, video, and narrative storytelling, Kiphayet crafts a layered, intimate portrait of transnational resistance and diasporic memory.

"At its core, this work is about distance, memory, and how people resist from afar," says Kiphayet. His exhibition centers on the July 2024 Massacre in Bangladesh, where a student-led uprising erupted in protest of a controversial Supreme Court ruling on government job quotas. The state's violent crackdown, resulting in the deaths of over 1,400 people and the shutdown of all communication, sent shockwaves across the global Bangladeshi community.

Photo: Courtesy

While the streets of Dhaka were engulfed in turmoil, Kiphayet turned his lens toward the diaspora in the United States—students, artists, and activists—who mobilized in solidarity through protests, art, digital activism, and economic boycotts. The exhibition captures the emotional and political fervor that ultimately contributed to the resignation and exile of then–Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Among the individuals featured in Brown Eyes Dream is Amad Mahbub, a Bangladeshi woman who left Bangladesh to escape social oppression and pursue education in neuroscience. Her complicated journey transforms her into an artist and uses henna art to stand with her homeland.

Kiphayet's photo series also documents the story of Shahab Uddin and Sheikh Nudhar, a young couple who left Bangladesh for educational opportunities in the United States. Isolated from their families during the communication blackout in Bangladesh, they became vocal participants in diaspora-led protests. Though hopeful for Bangladesh's future following the regime's collapse, they continue to grapple with the uncertainties back home while building new lives in America.

Presented in the second-floor galleries of the Corcoran, Brown Eyes Dream is a compelling example of socially engaged art emerging from the Bangladesh diaspora. Through his unique visual language, Kiphayet captures the intersection of political urgency, personal displacement, and collective hope.

The Corcoran's NEXT Festival 2025, running through May 16. Aashish Kiphayet's Brown Eyes Dream stands out as a timely and poignant meditation on memory, exile, and resistance.