Among today’s major artists in Bangladesh, Kanak Chanpa Chakma shines through with her unique body of works. Behind the use of vibrant colors lies stories of great depth.  As we lift the yellow veils of saffron and as we pierce past the misty cerulean blues, we find the inner thoughts of the artist - a melancholy aesthetic rising out of the canvas. It is a story of generations past, a beautiful, simpler way of life fading before our very eyes. Such lyrics and melodies will remain long after the traveler has gone, if only we care to listen and learn.

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Kanak has picked up the essential stylistic elements of great masters and put them together into her very own distinct style of storytelling. Her major works remind us of the master post-impressionist, Paul Gaugin. In Time Off we see echoes of Gauguinesque women, wrapped in saffron yellows and frozen in time, framed by a cerulean sky. Here, we begin to appreciate her mastery, using just two colours separated by a horizon.  While many of her portraits still exude the influence of figurative expressionism, her more recent and delightfully complex works begin to lean towards abstraction.

 

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Exhibition Dates: 9 November – 30 November 2019