Deer by Proddut Kumar Das

The weeklong '3rd Friendship Art Exhibition 2009,' featuring works of mainly young artists, ended at National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The exhibition was jointly organised by Chhobir Haat Art Society (a Facebook group) and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
"The main objective was to promote artworks of upcoming young artists," said Mohammad Zakir Hossain, coordinator of the event.
The exhibition began on October 16. Artist and teacher of Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), DU, Abul Barq Alvi inaugurated the event. State Minister for Home Affairs, Shamsul Haque Tuku; writer Professor Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and artist Jamal Ahmed were also present at the event.
Founded in January 2008, Chhobir Haat Art Society held its first exhibition in August last year at Drik Gallery. The exhibition featured 46 artworks by 36 artists.
The '2nd Friendship Art Exhibition' was held in November 2008 at Shilpangan. At the exhibition a total of 108 artworks by 43 artists, including works by artists from USA, UK, Denmark, Switzerland and India were displayed.
"Chhobir Haat is an internet-based group. A group of friends -- all students of FFA -- came up with the idea to promote works of young artists," said Zakir Hossain.
The recent art exhibition at BSA featured nearly 500 works -- divided in three sections (paintings, photography and sculpture) -- by 230 artists. A separate section at the exhibition included artworks by children. A total of 38 colourful paintings by children and adolescents were put on display.
Participating artists were not all professionals. Majority of the works on display were submitted by amateur artists.
Apart from young artists, the collection also included works by teachers of FFA and other institutions. A ceramic work by Debashish Pal, teacher, FFA, titled 'Destruction of Peace,' features human heads facing sharp pins. 'Faces,' a woodwork by Faruk Ahmed Mollah, teacher, FFA also featured faces. Other works included a presentation titled, 'Magic Box,' by Md. Aloptogin, teacher, FFA, Chittagong University; a sculpture titled 'Statue-4' by Md. Atiqul Islam, teacher, FFA, DU; an artwork titled 'Balance of Environment' by Malay Bala, teacher, FFA, DU; a painting 'Ancient Poem' by Gulshan Hossain, teacher, UODA and 'Self Purification-20' by Dewan Mizan, teacher, Shanto-Mariam University of Creative technology.
The photography section contained 160 photographs by 80 photographers. The displayed works highlighted varied themes including lifestyle, rural Bengal, nature, urban life, struggles of the common people and more.
The exhibition also included works by ten foreign artists -- Ayesha Hasan from Pakistan, Prasanta Acharjee from India, Henry Ballate from USA, Annette Steihard from Denmark, Maher Diab from Lebanon and others.
"The purpose of inviting foreign artists to the exhibition was to compare our works with theirs and also create an opportunity to exchange our views," said Zakir Hossain.
"Through this exhibition we are starting an organisation called 'Youth Society of Art,'" he added. "Before we were just a Facebook based group and now we want to become a fully functioning organisation."
"We hope to hold another exhibition in 2010 on a larger scale, bringing in more works by artists from overseas," Zakir said.