A solo art exhibition titled Crossing Through by Shawket Ahmed Apu is being held at the Dhaka Art Centre. The exhibition explores many facets of his journey as a traveler. His canvases portray subjects like social changes, environmental destruction and human emotions. Although the artist does not have any institutional background in fine arts, his keen interest in graphics, designing, visual art and paintings makes him a self-taught artist whose potentiality is vivid in the current exhibition.
In the debut exhibition, he experimented with different mediums and mostly preferred to use acrylic on canvas and paper. Abstract, semi-realistic, figurative and surrealistic genres of art are visible on the displayed artworks.
The versatile artist wrote small poems related to the subjects of his artworks and these poems add extra dimension to the show. A mentionable work, Block Together, is a metaphoric painting which depicts the horror of the Savar Tragedy. The canvas is full of building blocks which are collapsed and are presented with different colours , but the colour red representing bloodshed of the victims is highlighted in the painting.
Similar subject has been presented in another artwork Unexplainable Sufferings which tells a story of an innocent man who was hit by a patrol bomb during the recent political turmoil.
But the artist with his poetic soul shows a euphoric conclusion in the artwork where the body of the victim metamorphoses into that of a butterfly. This painting symbolically says when a man dies he merges in nature through the wings of a butterfly.
Another artwork From Nature is about his quest to know the secrets of nature and life. The artist sees beautiful elements in nature such as stones, dry leaves and soil. His compassion towards the natural world is evident in few more works. Yellow Flooding is another such work that is a treat for the nature lovers.
The show will continue till April 10.
