Bengal-Nama

Gallery Art Positive presents a group show ‘Bengal-Nama’ featuring iconic artists from Bengal and Bangladesh with artworks representing visual tapestries of the socio-cultural history of Bengal, curated by Ina Puri

New Delhi, November 2022: Bringing together a diverse palette of art and artists from Bengal and Bangladesh to the walls of New Delhi’s Bikaner House, a grand exhibition featuring 20 modern and contemporary artists is set to mesmerize the capital’s art lovers from November 26 to December 4, 2022. Presented by Gallery Art Positive and curated by Ina Puri, the exhibition pays homage to Bengal and its rich heritage of art practice from early times.

The aim of the exclusively-curated group show is to raise awareness through discourses that highlight the social questions and cultural histories of Bengal. With a lens zooming in specifically on Bengal and Bangladesh, the artists tackle an array of subjects from migration to geopolitics, and mythology to the ecological and social critique of existing crises like climate change. Alongside active art practitioners, the exhibition also features works of eminent artists whose work continues to be critically relevant to understanding Bengal’s pioneering role through history.

Through this exhibition, the gallery will showcase artists from across borders who have been working in a diverse range of media, including textiles, paintings, photography, ceramics, installations, sculptures and collages.

The featured artists are Bapi Das, Bappaditya Biswas, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Debasish Mukherjee, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Jogen Chowdhury, K. G. Subramanyan, Narayan Chandra Sinha, Najmun Nahar Keya, Paritosh Sen, Partha Dasgupta, Promotesh Das Pulak, Reba Hore, Shahria Sharmin, Shimul Saha, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Soma Das, Soumya Sankar Bose, Sudipta Das, and Yasmin Jahan Nupur.

Talking about the idea behind this artistic ode to Bengal, Anu Bajaj, Director, Gallery Art Positive said, “In the very early days when I was setting up Gallery Art Positive, Bengal played a significant role in shaping my sensibilities. I was deeply impressed by my visits to Kolkata where I met artists whose works I gradually started exhibiting in my space. As we stepped into our milestone 15th year, I felt it was time to acknowledge my debt of gratitude and pay a tribute to Bengal, after all so many of my long relationships were with artists from there over the years. In the intervening years, I had only taken on more artists on my roster from the veterans to the edgy contemporaries.”

“When I shared my sentiments with Ina Puri, she immediately responded to the idea and that was how the exhibition Bengal-Nama materialised. She conceptualised it brilliantly, with flair & imagination and her deep love for Bengal. I felt she was the ideal curator who would be able to do justice to my concept. She drew up a strong list of participating artists who worked in diverse mediums from Bengal & Bangladesh. I am confident that the show with its stellar artistic practitioners is set to make a strong curatorial statement on the behalf of Gallery Art Positive as we celebrate our 15th anniversary,” she added.

Curator Ina Puri said, “Be it about alienation or issues of resistance; radical criticism of the socio-political systems or playful irony and banter about the ‘bhadralok’, you find a rich diversity and multiplicity in the image-making emerging from the region. Landscapes and geographies dwell on memory as much as the flux in the present environment and the churn of both. The show pays tribute to artistic practitioners who approach a range of diverse subjects. The artists bring alive through the terrestrial prism a glimpse of ideas and movements that are vitally relevant to our times, historically and politically from the past to now.”

“Home is a place that gives a sense of belonging, comfort, security and affinity. Bengal-Nama for me is like connecting to the ‘Home’. Shantiniketan, where my artistic consciousness was nourished in the footsteps of a great master of Bengal school. and today it is an excellent opportunity to present myself in the Bengal art terrain from masters to the contemporary. Any chance to rummage in Bengal art and culture feels like a home atmosphere,” said Indian artist Sudipta Das, whose doll-like figurines make sharp artistic commentary on society. Her showstopping work ‘Home’, which received wide acclaim at the India Art Fair 2022, will be part of this show.

“Bengal is where I was born and grew up. This is the place where I belong to. The sound Bengal-Nama is an expression to me, which is talking about my land and makes me think to present something, what talks about it. I am presenting different time periods of this land through my artworks in a single frame. Every dynasty has its own architectural style, which always proves its identity. Mughal, British and East Pakistan, are different timelines of present Bangladesh. These three periods’ architectures are stitched together over here like a Kantha,” said Shimul Saha, an artist from Bangladesh.

India-based textile artist and craft activist Bappaditya Biswas said, “Given my experience in textiles, I thought of contributing something unique to the show, my experiment with indigo which was such an important movement during Swadeshi times. The indigo weave made in the same process has been made to look modern while the technique remains true to the original method.”

Celebrating a milestone moment, the exhibition also ushers in the gallery’s 15th anniversary with a tribute to a state which richly contributed to the gallery’s journey from its inception. After a successful run at the Bikaner House, the exhibition will travel to Gallery Art Positive, Lado Sarai, New Delhi.