Ronni Ahmmed's book launch in Venice

Guests at the book launch. (below) Cover of “The Cosmic Ark”.

Prominent Bangladeshi artist Ronni Ahmmed's art book “The Cosmic Ark” was officially launched recently at Macao Museum of Art, Arsenale, Campo della Tana Castello in Venice. The launching was followed by Ronni's linguistic performance and a video show.
Curator and President of Arte Communication, Paolo de Grandis; curator and art critic Professor Yacouba Konaté; writer Ebadur Rahman;urban designer and chairperson of Mermaid Art Foundation Ziauddin Pablo Khan and  Ronni Ahmmed himself spoke on the occasion.
Sponsored and published by the Mermaid Art Foundation, “The Cosmic Ark” is a compilation of the artist's major works spanning over two decades. The book includes over 300 images of the artist's work including paintings, prints, sketches, sculptures, murals, designs and more.
Ronni's works have a very distinct style; he has been a trendsetter in the Bangladeshi art arena. Through his paintings, the artist focuses on myths, and merges the past and the future of man, history, political and religious belief and nature. He applies varied symbols, motifs and fantastic elements, using human forms, animals and varied surrealistic imageries from his imagination. Ronni's works hold a kind of illusory atmosphere, which seems unfamiliar but this depiction of an apparently unknown civilisation or community expresses the same kind of message one gets when confronted with strange reality. Absurdity, mockery, brutality, power play, hypocrisy, hallucination, loneliness, science -- all these get diffused in his visions. The artist seems fascinated with myth and its many aspects and his message has been integrated in his tinted paintings. He is mainly a storyteller of the ludicrous and this young exponent tells his stories in an unusually humorous way. He tries to focus on various sides of our society.
Graduating from the Institute of Fine Arts (now the Faulty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka), Ronni has participated in many art events in Bangladesh and abroad, including exhibitions, workshops, residencies, camps, performances and presentations. Most recently, he participated in the Open 15 and Open 14 International exhibitions on Sculptures and Installations and also in the Santorini Biennale of Arts '12 in Greece. In 2011, he participated in the special exhibition in Paris on Bangladesh's 40th year of Independence, and in 2009, he participated in the fourth Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale. His works were also exhibited at various art events in Japan, Egypt, Australia, Poland, Myanmar, India and Jordan.