A Taste of Light and Darkness

Md Azmol Hosen, Untitled Journey 1, acrylic on board.

A group of five pioneering painters (Md Al Akhir Sarker, Syed Fida Hossain and Azmel Hosen and Sultan Ishtiaq) are stepping into the field of art with their exhibition: "A taste of light and darkness". They all studied art at the Department of Fine Arts at Dhaka University and are lucky enough to get Rafiqun Nabi, Nisar Hussain, Shishir Bhattacharya, Shikh Afzal and Farida Zaman as mentors.
Nisar and Shishir helped them most in both practical and theory. Jamal introduced them to Shahabuddin who was then difficult to accost. The teachers taught them to copy nature, figure study, both indoor and outdoor. They learnt to deal with landscape, such as scenes of the Buriganga, they went to Panam Nagar on bus, studied the Kamalapur Railway station and the New Market Kacha Bazaar.  
Syed Fida Hossain paints on canvas. He tries to discover his soul. After searching for the soul in a box, he does not find what he expects. It appears that the body is being sliced. Actually it is the soul that is being cut and examined. The background remains flat.    

Md Al-Akhir Sarker, Flower Smeller Oxen, acrylic on canvas, 2014.

Md Al-Akhir Sarker, Fishing after Fazar.

Rashidul Alam says that he enjoys work in acrylic and water colour. He says that things are difficult with oil and emotions are easier to capture in water colour. The characters that he has shown in his work are rather placid as they are similar to his thoughts. Men remain full of anxiety and self-indulgence. Society is responsible for the havoc that the average man faces and all the things that are happening around us, including the burning of buses with people in them.  
Al Akhir Sarker says, "I express my feelings in my dreams. I grew up beside the flowers in the mud that are often seen in my paintings. "The flower smeller ox ", acrylic on canvas, is me in a different form. I love listening to Lalon, Sufi and folk music of all genres."

Syed Fida Hossain, Self Quest and Panorama World 1, oil on board.

ASM Rashidul Alam, Illusion of Life

Azmal Hossen thinks we each pretend to survive ourselves in struggle of my life and we make a story about our needs and dreams which sometimes make us happy and sometimes upset. "Various expectations took place in our lives. Sometimes we feel disappointed and sometimes we feel our dreams fulfilled. It has no beginning or end. We try to depict expression of faces on paper. I tried to capture the needs of my subject .The background of my painting is as important as my main painting, although the others have been added on as mixed media while the main figure is of acrylic," he says.
Sultan Ishtiaq says that at times he tried to show everything at a spot including, the young and the old, the people waiting to pass as the little boats gathered at the ferry. "Rain was another subject I tried to capture along with fishermen and dinghies," he says.

Sultan Istiaque, Dockyard.

Photosynthesis of Soul