ECS | The Nepali Way

The Mahabharata An Impression
23 January – 11 February, 2010
Siddhartha Art Gallery Baber Mahal Revisited, kathmandu
Artist Kurchi Dasgupta’s paintings are a remake of the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata. However, do not expect the regular repeat version of the popular epic. Dasgupta’s Mahabharata sustains on the artist’s interpretation of its historical events and essence. “I have come to realize that no artwork may dare encompass the experiential range of the world’s longest epic,” writes the artist. “My pieces, therefore, merely try and unravel The Mahabharata’s multilayered experience for the viewer/ participator,” she adds. “The driving idea was not to visually document the epic as such, but to document my response to it as a visual artist impelled by her location in terms of history, culture, gender and exposure to contemporary art practices.”

“The series hopes to involve the viewer/participator in a journey of discovery… discovery of the artwork first, then The Mahabharata itself. And finally, of the relevance the epic holds for us today, relevance to the flesh and blood world we are immersed in.”

Kurchi, born in 1974, and brought up in Kolkata, India, is a student of commercial arts. She did her post graduation in Comparative Literature. Kurchi renders modern Bengali masterpieces into English, and has done editing, book illustration, publishing and screenplays. A former CEO of the Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films in India, she now lives and works in Kathmandu with her husband and son.

‘My Journey Through Art’ By Jhasendra Bikram Shah
7- 14 FEB, 2010
NEPAL ART COUNCIL, BABER MAHAL
Mrs. Sangeeta Thapa spoke of Mr. J.B. Shah thus: “I’m going to be brave here. Mr. Jhasendra Bikram Shah is not a professional artist,” during the inauguration of the latter’s painting exhibition at the Nepal Art Council. Shah remained an army engineer for almost 30 years, but his paintings showed his excellent long-hidden artistic side. As the title suggests, “My Journey Through Art” is J.B. Shah’s long and artistic journey from throughout his life. Diversity was evident in his paintings as the works varied from his earlier stuff that included different colored sketches like that of a stone-carved elephant and a person with a bamboo basket to the works of the latter phases where a sophisticated play of lights and shades could be observed. J.B. Shah, as mentioned earlier, is not a professional artist, but had he decided to make art his career, he would surely have been one to be reckoned with. And this exhibition more than proves that.

Expression of Trees
10 – 15 February, 2010
Imago dei, Naxal, Kathmandu

The artist dwells and delves in nature. Her recent exhibition ‘Expression of Trees’ also portrays the same inclination with paintings of foliages. The brush strokes take an abstract turn, with an amalgamation of vivid colors, mostly shades of green and blue. “To Samjhana, trees mean not only the most visible symbolic form of nature but also a strange comparative metaphor of a human life,” writes Madan Chitrakar, artist and art critic, as an introduction to Samjhana’s works. “The diverse imagery of trees, foliage, stalks, trunks and leaves in equally diverse hues and colors are mere reflections of the state of mind of the artist,” he adds. “But what makes this series more different and interesting is the fact that Samjhana has well displayed her efforts to explore deeper in trees as a source of her creative expression.”
Artist Samjhana Rajbhandari (Amatya) is also an art teacher at Don Bosco High School, Kathmandu and a member of the School of Creative Communication, Women Artist’s Group of Nepal and Artists’ Society of Nepali.