Art institutes of the country always wish for talented artists like Sumon Wahed who studied at the fine arts institute of the University of Dhaka. Later, he reinvented himself as a strategist confronting the new notions of emerging art practices at Shantiniketon.
Wahed’s first solo art exhibition, curated by Wakilur Rahman is currently on at The Dhaka Art Center. Aptly titled Academic -Postacademic, the inaugural ceremony of the week long exhibition was held on January 28 with the graceful presence of AASM Arefin Siddiqui, vice chancellor of DU, Abul Barq Alvi, dean of Fine Arts Institute, University of Dhaka, Shaheen Reza Noor, executive editor of The Daily Ettefaq and eminent artist Rafiqun Nabi.
Sumon’s images portray contagious enthusiasm. His works on popular images of circulation-movie posters, rickshaw painting, magazines, advertisements, billboards, comics, cartoons, leaflets, newspapers, popular texts, roadside symbols, animations, photography and cyber images all suggest a penchant for culturally produced and provoked signs, also a certain kind of practical interest in image collation.
While continuously strategising his conceptualising methods, Sumon addressed issues like political killing, curse of capitalism, deep malaise of consumerism by deconstructing the popular conceptions, In fact, he followed and subverted the “meanings” in circulation in slight yet telling juxtapositions. His artworks Prison 1&2, Death Waiting on Red Carpet 1&2 and Nothing is Happening There 1&2 are garnered to capture the spectators’ concentration, while the added frankness in his works will also enhance its communicative efficacy to the spectators. Sumon said that he wanted to depict the postmodernism in his works by juxtaposing traditional form of image with the very modern.
The canvases are dominated by nature, human and animal figures that capture the universal beauty of realistic emotion which is re-imagined through his work. Sumon has also depicted the complex city life in some of his works. In his painting Winter Morning, he portrays the activities of the city on a winter morning. Brutal truth, Butcher shop, Adda at Modhur Canteen, Landscape and Figure Study are some of the captivating images that Sumon has painted. His style is somewhat influenced by some of his teachers and fellow senior artists, yet, his figurative works are well developed and has his own distinct touch. His work possess an originality that quite evidently sets him apart from most artists.
Sumon shows talent when using traditional media like pen, pencil, ink and water colors. Even though he shows radiance in all mediums of painting, he has a special flare when using water colors.
Sumon has mastered the art of portrait painting and book cover illustrations. He previously worked as a contributing artist at a national English daily and now works as a freelance artist. He has illustrated a lot of comic and story books, the most recent being Lalon and Rabindranath Tagore.
