Inside Mohammad Kibria’s world: Unseen works at Kala Kendra

At first glance, the works lining the walls of Kala Kendra are easy to miss. They are small—some no larger than an A4 size paper and made of inexpensive paper, newspaper clippings, faint pencil lines and muted colour. 

There are no titles, no signatures, and no attempt to grab attention. Nothing about them immediately signals that they belong to Mohammad Kibria, one of Bangladesh's most revered modern artists.

That quiet understatement is precisely the point.

In celebration of Mohammad Kibria's 97th birth anniversary, Kala Kendra is presenting 'An Artist's Compilation: 84 Unseen Original Works (1980–2006)', open to visitors from 1 to 26 January. 

Mohammad Kibria was born on 1 January 1921 in West Bengal, British India. 

He completed his undergraduate degree at the Government College of Art, Kolkata, in 1950. He began his career as an art teacher at Nawabpur Government High School and, in 1954, joined the newly established Dhaka Art College, founded by the eminent Zainul Abedin.

Kibria furthered his education in Japan on a government scholarship from 1959 to 1962. 

In his early career, Kibria's work was figurative. However, after completing his higher studies in Japan, his style underwent a profound transformation. He embraced expressive abstraction, a mode of painting in which he would become a pioneering force, imbuing Bangladeshi art with a new sense of scale and significance.

He retired as a professor from the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, in 1987 and was named Emeritus Professor in 2008. He passed away on 7 June 2011. 

Organised in close collaboration with the artist's family, the exhibition displays small-scale collages and mixed-media pieces that Kibria never intended for public display, carefully preserved in a handbound folio.

Spanning over two decades, these works offer an intimate glimpse into Kibria's creative process. All untitled and many unsigned, each of these artworks reflects his distinctive approach to abstraction, memory, and interconnectedness. 

As Juneer Kibria notes, his father composed and reassembled fragments of magazines, photographs, letters, and sketches, layering materials and colours to capture both personal reflection and broader human experiences. 

The works reveal how Kibria transformed everyday elements into compositions that convey mood, emotion, and the push and pull of memory, rather than literal narratives.

The exhibition also features the original folio, allowing visitors to witness Kibria's careful curation and mark-making. A companion publication reproduces the works at full scale, preserving the intimacy of his visual journal. 

Perhaps most striking is what these works reveal about artistic freedom. Removed from the pressures of market demand, stylistic branding and public reputation, Kibria appears here as an artist working entirely for himself.

"In formal exhibitions, even if we don't admit it, issues of style, market pressure, praise and criticism are always present," said Kala Kendra founder Wakilur Rahman. "But here, he was completely free. That level of concentration is rare."

Originally scheduled to run from 1 to 26 January, Kala Kendra is planning to extend the show until 2 February. The show is running daily from 4pm to 8pm at Lalmatia. 

TBS Picks

Untitled

Medium: Mixed media collage with printed paper

This collage feels like a constellation of fragments floating in darkness, like scattered documents or eroded walls suspended in the night. The torn papers perhaps carry traces of language, memory, and decay. 

Untitled

Medium: Mixed media collage with printed paper

This untitled work's central dark form feels like a scar or passage, split yet contained. Earthen browns and greens evoke soil and age. Torn edges suggest fragility, while the symmetry offers calm. 

Untitled

Medium: Mixed media collage with printed paper

This work, also untitled, has rather a fragile surface where time seems to peel itself away. Layers of white feel eroded, like memory scraped and rebuilt. Muted greys and mossy shadows suggest decay and restraint and feel almost archaeological.