Khandakar Abdus Sattar, Charge d'Affaires of Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing and Li Xin, Deputy Director of the Bureau of External Cultural Relations under the Chinese Ministry of Culture jointly inaugurated the exhibition on July 18. The opening ceremony was attended by Chinese art enthusiasts and students, foreign diplomats and members of the Bangladeshi community in Beijing.

Born in 1951 in Mymensingh, artist Khurshid Alam Saleem graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts, DU in 1976. He took part in a Special Course in Advanced Colour Print at New York University in 1987-'88. He has had 13 solo painting exhibitions to his credit, mostly in the US and Bangladesh.

Saleem's works mirror a mature abstract style where colours become the most important element in the creative process. Saleem says he intends to capture the essential harmony in nature through a rhythmic expression of colours.

Saleem has created some occasional geometrical patterns to signify the "grand design" of nature that inspires his vision. The patterns emerge in an organic fashion to add further depth to the overall colour scheme. In some of his works, Saleem heightens the texture by dabbing a thick coat of paint on the canvas, plastering a coloured piece of net in the middle, or creating a subtle, grainy effect as if to suggest the underlying sensitivities of natural elements.

The artist finished one of the paintings in Beijing immediately before the exhibition, where he incorporated dominant colours like red, green, blue and golden seen on architectural landmarks like the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven. Some of the works done in his studio at his Long Island residence evoke the impression of a sea or a waterfall with linear blue and white shades in a fluid movement. Saleem avows that his works are deeply influenced by the ideas and styles of American artist Mark Rothko and veteran Bangladeshi artist Mohammad Kibria.

The exhibition ended yesterday.