Down to Earth’, an exhibition of pottery, currently on view at the Arts & Ideas Lifestyle Gallery, Swabhumi, has showcased young Bengali potters at their best.

The exhibition does not suffer from a narrow ethnicity. The artists ? Partho Dasgupta, head, ceramics department, Government Art College, and eight of his students ? seem to be fully aware of the styles of pottery, starting from ancient civilisations of Greece, West Asia, Egypt and the Indus Valley. Also, they have incorporated the refinements of Chinese ceramics, the poetry of East Asian shapes, the exquisiteness of contrasting colours, sometimes decorating items with enticing floral motifs and graded textures of glazes.

Most of the works are red- or black-polished wares and made of clay on potters’ wheels. There are, however, a few exhibits that have been executed with some layers of clay slabs.

The works on display show skills of hands, fingers and small instruments. It is hard to forget Dasgupta’s stylised versions of Ganesha (in picture) and jars of Tanmoy Das and Monoj Das.

Suman Basu’s ceramic bag with a basket texture on the body, and ceramic paintings and sculptures on tiled wall hangings by Moushumi Roy, Piyali Sarkar, Gourav Malakar and Manick Das are also attractive.