Manoj Kachangal’s solo exhibition titled “In Search of Abyss” at Mon Art Gallerie showed the best of art deco in contemporary expressionism

9^th Feb, Kolkata: On a day when the weather in the city vacillated up the inner compulsions, it was worth visiting the gallery to be a part of the inaugural show of Manoj Kachangal’s works. Most works displayed were acrylic on canvas and only a few were done on paper. Each artwork looked distinct though Manoj seemed to have played with the idea of recurrent patterns interlocked and interwoven by reds, ultramarines, greens and yellows. There is a strange likeness to fabric with a central space in each work occupying one dominant colour knifed to create concurrent motions juxtaposed between linear patterns in much sombre colours. As colours have distinct temperatures, the artworks on display create a soothing sensation that can be felt instantaneously. Manoj achieved that through his own artistic sensibility which is pure in his delineation of kinetic forms in various colours corresponding to different states of mind: temperate, luxuriant and calm. Though it is difficult to categorize, Manoj’s works are probably one of the most striking in contemporary expressionism where colours plunge us into an abyss of emotional space and we are confronted with both the external and internal worlds to construct for us our own “liebesreligion” (religion of love) which the German Romantic philosopher Novalis talked about in 18^th century. In visual arts, it’s like a mise en abyme – in search of abyss within an abyss.

This February (9^th -29^th ) Mon Art Gallerie wants to throw a new light on works by this essential artist, thanks to the curated show organized by notable art historian MS Bhavna Kakar on behalf of the gallery.

For more info, please contact Joy Roy Choudhury at artvantage.uk@gmail.com

Verandah Art Gallery presents “Continuity”- an exhibition of paintings from artists of Bengal spanning over three generations

8^th February, Kolkata: The art exhibition titled “Continuity …Amidst Change” will take place at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata and will be inaugurated by eminent danseuse Smt Priti Patel on 12^th February at 6 pm. Curated by MS Myna Kakar, Gallery Manager, Verandah Art Gallery, this show will highlight the varying styles of some of the best names in the art industry like Paritosh Sen, Prokash Karmakar, Subhendu Porel, Niladri Paul, Sibsaday Chaudhuri and many others who have taken Indian art to the dizzy heights of esteem and glory. If multiplicity is the essential visual dialogic that determines the merging of tradition and talent, then it goes without saying that the artistic displays covering three generations will have to be of archival quality. Among the striking works that will be displayed, Kanchanmala’s “The Joining Lines” introduces the subject of woman gazed by a woman thus creating the double play of the surveyor/surveyed binary in one canvas done in charcoal and acrylic. Also Prokash Karmokar’s “In the Waves” and Arindram Chakravorty’s “The Diluting City I” among a host of other stellar works to be showcased at the salon are evidently representative of the pride of Bengal and its cultural mainstream-an aesthetic and intellectual movement which is still continuous…amidst change. For more info, please contact Joy Roy Choudhury at artvantage.uk@gmail.com