A painting by Pampa Panwar

Gandhara Art gallery presents the works of 11 artists, most of them trained in Santiniketan. They were born between the early 1960s and the early 1970s.

The other feature they have in common is that they are trying to evolve a personal language of expression, although at times, it is possible to detect the influence of senior and successful artists or even current trends in their works.

This is not an accusation of the artists whose works are on display here. In general, few practitioners fresh out of art school dare to strike out on their own, even more so today, now that the art market is booming and everybody wants to have a piece of the cake.

Moreover, each and every artist feels the obligation to be ?postmodern?. This tag comes in handy and artists quote verse and text to get away with almost anything.

To return to the artists whose works are being exhibited here, Rajarshi Biswas?s canvas is almost photographic in its realism but there are obvious deviations. In his effort to be with it, Biswas has fallen back on devices that have become threadbare. Sanatan Saha has not achieved much more. Sahajahan struck upon an arresting image and stayed put.

Chandrima Bhattacharjee goes in for gaudy contrasting shades ? violet, orange, yellow and black. In one painting, she uses an unusual format ? a long, vertical strip.

Her images slip in and out of reality, from the mundane to the fantastic ? the black swan drinking from a bowl and the thread turning into the artist?s signature.

An academic training has its blessings and limitations as well. Chandra Bhattacharya paints human heads along with chess boards and little else. A mock map that looks real enough and several diagrams of scissors form part of Chhatrapati Datta?s image. While inviting viewers to ?cut along this line?, the borders between a game and a cartographer?s handiwork dissolve.

Tiny quadrangles of colour, patchwork quilts, a cat, a girl, a brinjal, an apple, food, all fall into place in Manjari Chakravarti?s canvas. It looks like a scrap book but the bits and pieces that have been put together raise one question. What is her country of origin? Or is this one of the far-reaching effects of globalisation?

Pampa Panwar?s abode of peace is shattered by the invasion of helicopters.

Three artists ? Samindranath Majumdar, Sajal Sarkar and Arindam Chatterjee ? have opted for the non-figurative mode.