Stories without titles

As I explored AFD's ongoing exhibition 'She, The Universe: The Infinity Within Her', I was struck by the fluid storytelling present in each painting—something I rarely experience in other exhibitions.

The mystical art style, combined with thoughtful curation, drew me in, prompting me to revisit each piece with a fresh interpretation every time.

The entire space is bathed in soft, ambient lighting that invites viewers to slow down and truly absorb the artwork. At the heart of the exhibition stands a deliberately placed black wall and table, anchoring the space with intention.

The exhibition showcases Liton Kar's 25 surreal oil paintings as he uses female subjects to explore emotions and socio-political themes in a dreamy and cosmic look.

He has intentionally designed this to be like a cultural event to bring people together to experience art. The paintings themselves are enough to carry you through the stories he has created, even if you do not have any idea about the theme or experience with interpreting art.

Liton has been a veteran in the graphics and admaking industry for decades but this is his first art exhibition. And his brushwork, composition and philosophy is a crystal clear cumulation of all his struggles, hard work and artistic ability. His storytelling is a beautiful mixture of his cinematography and oil painting that leaves a lasting impression on you.

The theme of this exhibition slowly developed when the artist started painting with his pastel oil in 2020 after taking a hiatus from oil painting for almost 26 years. 

"I used women and their infinite representations in art as a metaphor of nature to explore my own emotions of grief, suffocation, fear, happiness," said Liton

The mesmerising brush work excellently captures the cosmic and natural elements of the pieces and while it looks dreamy, it utilises the colours palette to balance that mystical yet uncomfortable edge to heavy emotions we feel. It mostly focuses on a surrealistic approach to pave the way for users to use their imagination and emotions to develop their own interpretations about the art.

Liton chose not to title any of the artworks—except for one—because he believes that understanding art shouldn't be an elitist exercise. To him, paintings should speak for themselves and invite personal reflection rather than dictate meaning. 

As I watched children walk through the exhibition, freely sharing what they thought each piece represented, it was clear that Liton's intention had resonated.

"A piece of art that cannot touch anyone has no need to exist in this world," he remarked, explaining his decision to leave most of the works untitled.

Being a production designer and filmmaker, it was no surprise that all of the pieces are in a cinematic 16:9 ratio and his beautiful exhibition was also curated carefully by him to influence how the art was perceived by the viewers. 

He uses space really well to include themes of politics and war connected by his works that are centrally themed around nature. Even in violence, politics, injustice and war, all of us are connected by nature.

Alongside these, the exhibition also features his gorgeous film posters that have fantastic composition and storytelling that makes you excited to watch the film just through the posters. 

The exhibition took place at La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi. 

TBS Picks

Medium: Oil on Canvas

This painting depicts life as we go from being little kids chasing the moon to being burdened by everything happening all around us to finding ourselves to be alone where there is nothing to accompany us except nature and ourselves. This was intentionally curated to be on a table because the artist believes "it is better to look at life by keeping our heads down".

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Based on the story of Mahsa Amini, this picture follows a cinematographic composition where we see a woman sort of tied up with belts and whips surrounded by women and girls in hijab who fade to black in the distance. This is the only labelled piece in the exhibition to give the viewers proper discourse.