A group exhibition by six artists at Shilpangan Gallery of Fine Arts in Dhanmondi depicts various contemporary
socio-political issues through art.
The 10-day show titled Whistle features 34 artworks in different mediums including printmaking etching, terracotta, pastel, acrylic and oil on canvas by the participants-Anika Marium Ahmed, Tapan Haldar, Fatima Munni, Umma Shohag, Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury and Amjad Akash.
Art is a way of documentation of everyday experience for artist Anika Marium Ahmed. What she sees, hears or feels in her daily errands have been reflected in her oil paintings. As a city dweller, Ahmed has to witness the hassles and agony the local bus passengers have to undergo on weekdays in the capital. She has captured this chaotic metropolitan nuisance in her painting A Journey by Bus, which shows a local bus jam packed with passengers. ‘I am a city resident so therefore, the agitation of metropolitan life has frequently surfaced on my paintings,’ the artist informs New Age.
Contemporary socio-political issues and nature have appeared thematically in paintings by Akash. A girl singing with spirit amongst an audience symbolically represented by hands raised upwards revealing the people’s movement called Shahbag Protest that occurred in the capital recently can be seen in his pastel painting titled Gono Jagoron.
Fatima Munni, on the other hand, contemplates the spirit and attributes of women during her creative process of painting. A woman holding a red flower in her hand has been depicted by Munni in Innocence, an oil on canvas painting.
Semi-abstract artwork Journey Before Destination has been created by Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury with mixed media. Chowdhury has depicted a human figure through an outline heading towards a seemingly tunnel entrance of a cave like structure created with bold, semi-circular strokes in shades of earth colour.
A king has appeared with all his grandeur and gravity in etching print artwork titled King by Tapan Haldar. Two imposing faces wearing ornaments and diadem have been unveiled in the artwork, which also shows two spears situated on both sides of the kings upholding the spirit of kingdom and kingship.
‘I have done experimentations with terracotta. Generally artists portray figurative artworks by terracotta. But I have tried to create abstract forms with the medium,’ revealed Umma Shohag regarding her terracotta artworks at the exhibition. Her Untitled artworks reveal flower petal like forms closely coexisting in coherence and harmony. The abstract forms might also appear like an animal herd in the eyes of some viewers.
Inaugurated on July 5, the exhibition will remain open from 12:00 to 8:00pm till July 14.
-With New Age input
