Kolkata Ink Studio’s group exhibition of graphic art at Gallery Charubasona with 18 participants looked decorative, with each artist displaying two disc-shaped copperplates and their matching prints above them in the same shape. It was a mixed bag of artists both young and old, some quite well-known in this field. The challenge was to fit the image within the geometric shape, and the artists rose to the occasion.
Everything looked neat but the works were hardly challenging. They did not exceed our expectations. Manik Kumar Ghosh utilised the double-disc form best. He had cleverly turned the double circles into a brassiere, perhaps of the lacy variety. Sadly, the colouration was too faded to make an impression. Partha Pratim Deb had expectedly embraced the absurd: two clownish human figures occupied the space. Laxma Goud’s goddess was in keeping with his practice. The ornamentation was restrained. Rm. Palaniappan’s prints created the illusion of being three-dimensional, the web of pirouetting lines and the tints enhancing the illusion (picture, left). Siddhartha Ghosh’s superior draughtsmanship was evident from his image of humans without an identity, a very topical issue today. The human faces — perhaps subalterns — were revealed only partially (picture, right).
Sukla Poddar’s concern for the environment was quite obvious from the images of nature. Rachita Bhowmik shares these concerns in a more articulate manner. Parag Roy explored male-female relations, with the male manifested as an animal. Ramendra Nath Kastha conjured pictures of innocence — vulnerable little girls, one nursing a fledgling. Swapnesh Vaigankar’s drawings at archaeological sites and of Durga in Bengal were the impulse behind his sepia construct. Vaigankar has invested these deities with a quaint charm of their own. Most of the works were monochromes. Goud’s goddesses and one of Poddar’s prints had a touch of faded hues.
Srabani Sarkar’s works in soft, pastel shades were reflections on our inner selves and our horizons — limited or boundless, as we choose them to be.