Eight artists study our troubled times, lockdown impact in this exhibition in Kolkata

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The Kolkata Centre for Creativity is holding an exhibition of eight artists Jogen Chowdhury, Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya, Arunima Choudhury, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Arindam Chatterjee, Anjan Modak, Tamal Bhattacharya and Soma Das. Significantly, there is no stylistic grouping that binds these artists in the exhibition.

But their diversified practices appear as eight distinct conceptual postures that are studies on our troubled times including the impact of the pandemic-triggered lockdown.

Titled ‘Constellations’, the exhibition features artworks that explore diverse concerns, meanings, implications and even the politics of our anxious times. While some of the frames mirror despondency, others portray hope.

Bathed in rich tones of grey, calibrated between pearl white and charcoal black, Chandra Bhattacharjee’s paintings of a forest at night marry the delicacy of a painter with the gaze of a photographer. The forest is not a natural world of beasts and tribes, but a frontier in which the wilderness is threatened by expansionist urban civilization.

The adverse effects of the pandemic-induced lockdown on ordinary people have been depicted in the ir works by Soma Das, Tamal Bhattacharya and Anjan Modak. Working in the style of miniature paintings, Soma Das explores the changing patterns of life in the low-income suburbs, commenting on the safety norms of social-distancing introduced by the contagious virus.

Tamal Bhattacharya, a ceramicist, gives expression to personal experiences of confinement at home, limited interaction with the familiar world and a life increasingly dependent on gadgets as a means of communicating with the larger world outside.

In an allegorical and metaphorical approach, Arindam Chatterjee’s paintings dwell on the migration of labourers during lockdown and are in a gloomy light.

However, Jogen Chowdhury’s artworks dwell on the eternal aesthetic values that make us feel at home even in the age of discordance, drastic change and disappearance.

Shuvaprasanna captures a vibrantly coloured cityscape with suggesting cheer and hope. There are also a couple of his trademark crow series frames.

The exhibition that has 56 artworks on display will continue till March 13.