Asif Hoque (b. 1991, Rome) was born to Bangladeshi parents, raised between Rome and South Florida, and lives and works in Brooklyn. He studied fine art at Pratt Institute and Hunter College. He paints in oil on linen, blending Roman and Bengali traditions into a mythology of his own: Brown figures at rest or in triumph, tigers and lions, fantastical creatures moving through mountains, clouds and crashing waves. The tiger comes from Bangladesh’s national animal, the lion from European heraldry, and the two share the same canvas without either giving way. Light is the real subject, inherited from the Western tradition of painted light and from Rubens in particular, and in recent years it has turned gold: a colour that in Bengali custom is given at birth, and that reflects rather than simply shines.
Solo exhibitions include Before Sunrise at Yossi Milo, New York, Golden Boy at Half Gallery, and shows at Taymour Grahne Projects in London, Mindy Solomon in Miami and New Image Art in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited at Almine Rech in Brussels and Kapp Kapp in New York, and in 2025 he held a residency at Silver Art Projects in New York. His paintings are held in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Xiao Hui Wang Art Museum in Suzhou. His work has been covered by Juxtapoz, Whitewall and Hypebeast.
In 2026 Hoque took part in the Plan X residency in Capri, where he made the work for his solo exhibition Who’s Gonna Carry My Boat? at Plan X Milan. He also took part in the group exhibition Dreaming in Daylight at Plan X Capri that year.