Exhibition in Toronto featuring Bangladeshi expatriate painters

The Bangladesh Art Society of North America (BASNA) has organised a group art exhibition featuring the works of Bangladeshi expatriate painters -- Iftikhar Uddin Ahmed, Mazharul Haque, Syed Najmul Alam, Sherin Nigar, Nahid Shariar, Fahmida Hossain Urmi, Kawsar Ahmed Khan, Naznin Shirazi, Sonia Israt Jahan, Nil Utpol and Moinur Rahman Arju. The exhibition is now on at Systems Art Gallery, Danforth in Toronto, Canada. The exhibition was inaugurated on January 5. High officials of Bangladesh High Commission in Canada, art collectors and critics attended the inaugural session.
About 44 artworks are on display at the exhibition. Among the participating painters, Iftikhar Uddin Ahmed and Fahmida Hossain Urmi are well recognised in Bangladesh.
Iftikhar Uddin Ahmed's works delve deep into time, history and civilization. Ahmed's paintings are mostly in acrylic and mixed media. The painter has been greatly influenced by abstract expressionism. He is a symbolic painter as his forms and motifs have a specific explanation. Broken wheels, horses and watches are recurring subjects in his paintings. These elements denote time, history and power.
Fahmida Hossain Urmi is a figurative painter and she particularly portrays lonesome and depressed women. She has a good control over colours and compositions. The colours have an exceptional lucid trait with various phases coming into play as she makes a connection with figures.
About the group exhibition, president of BASNA, Iftikhar Uddin Ahmed said over the phone: “The organisation usually arranges solo and group exhibition in Toronto. We mainly want to project the current trends in Bangladeshi arts outside the country.”
The exhibition will continue till January 22.