22 NOVEMBER 2021 /
NOTES FROM THE LOCKDOWN…. /
ANNUS HORRIBILIS TWICE OVER /
Exhibition of Paintings at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata /
19 NOVEMBER – 24 DECEMBER 2021 (3.00 PM – 8.00 PM) / Closed on Mondays /
ARTISTS /
Suresh K Nair / Kanchan Chander/ E H Pushkin/Lalitha Lajmi/Shobha Broota/Jamil Ahamed Khan/Instabili Vaganti/Lochan Upadhyay/Shailesh BR/Sarmistha Sarker/Budhaditya Chattopadhyay / Baishampayan Saha/ Sahaj Umang Singh Bhatia
“The Covid –19 pandemic overshadowed all other happenings, bringing in a foreboding sense of dystopia and trauma. A dystopia that claimed more lives than the two World Wars combined and bared open the widening chasm between the greed and the need.
Alongside the tentacles of an yet-to-be explained pandemic came tales of conspiracy theories, heroic acts and conscious oversights.
The intergenerational artworks look at the new normal, fault lines, wounds, hopes, aspirations, sutures, redefining of livelihood practices and the precarity of our times.
The dialectical nature of the exhibited pieces will stand as a testimony and an inventory of loss and lacerations.
The art works displayed here will definitely emerge as an alternative visual chronicle of an Annus Horribilis which in days to come will slowly and steadily pave the way for Annus Mirabilis,” says the curator of the Exhibition, Mukherjee. P.
Suresh K Nair, Professor, Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi has acquired a major presence in the Indian and International art scene over the last decade conducting several successful shows with regional and international galleries and museums.
Kanchan Chander studied Painting and printmaking from College of Art, New Delhi, Weissensee Kunsthochschule, Berlin and College of Art, Santiago, Chile. She has conducted many solos and participated in various prestigious exhibitions all over the world.
E. H Pushkin, the renowned artist conducted many shows including ‘Reading Paint’ Gallery soulflower, Bangkok, ‘Contemporary Indian Art’, Capital art Centre, Taipeo and group show at EM Art Gallery, Beijing.
Lalitha Lajmi has conducted many exhibitions and received many awards. Indian films especially that of her brother Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor influenced the famous artist in a big way.
Shobha Broota has participated in various exhibitions all over the world and the artist lives and works in New Delhi.
The renowned artists Jamil Ahamed Khan, Instabili Vaganti, Lochan Upadhyay, Sarmistha Sarker, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Shailesh B R, Sahaj Umang Singh Bhatia and Baishampayan Saha portrayed a “wide range of diverse visual propositions at play – some choose to directly address what happens around them, others delved deep into their private multiverses”.
