Did two visits to «Passion of Thai Modern Art» - an art exhibition at Siam Paragon with 81 art pieces from KASIKORNBANK's contemporary collection and another 127 sculptures and 93 paintings from the Bangkok Sculpture Center's collection displayed over 4 floors of space. The mix of Buddhism and Buddhist influences in the Modern Art of Thailand blended beautifully. The large «Dimensions of Life» by artist Panya Vijinthanasarn rises 1800 CM.  

 36 of my photographs displayed at «In Search of Beautiful Impressions» an exhibition at Bengal Gallery from 2nd to 4th June 2008 - of prints from the Printmaking Workshop which was held at the Institute of Fine Arts Dhaka University from 18th to 24th May 2008. The facade of the Gallery is an enormous wood-carved piece of art which makes me stop and look at it every time I visit. The exhibition was great and there were so many fantastic pieces of art that I liked - I bought [just!] 4 of the many prints that I liked. Rokeya was at the gallery this evening, doing an interview for the gallery and probably one for a TV channel. I missed the slide-show and documentary film though, as it was getting late and I had to be elsewhere by 7. Subir Choudhury, the Director of the gallery, promised to send me a copy on a disk .

Artist friend Rokeya Sultana [she is a Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts as well] asked me to photograph the 7 day Printmaking Workshop proceedings at the Institute of Fine Arts Dhaka University  organized by The Bengal Foundation during 18th to 24th May 2008.  Visiting Professors Nirmalendu Das and Pinaki Barua of Vishwa Bharati headed the the Zinc-plate Etching and Lithography workshop.  Final prints from the artists who participated will be on display during a 2 day exhibition [«In Search Of Beautiful Impressions«] at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts on 3rd and 4th June 2008 - the inaugural ceremony will be held on 2nd June evening.  Photographing the artists at work was very interesting for me, and I sort of got a bit side-tracked and photographed more «faces» than I did of the actual processes! After going through the entire lot of photos, there were enough images to present a series of a dozen each for the Etching and Litho processes. Lucky! Some of these photos will also be on display at the exhibition as a sort of «introduction to printmaking» : 

I've never before displayed any photographs at an exhibition or to the public, so this is an exciting experience - though mixed with some apprehension as well! Previous related posts at my blog are here, here and here. A must-read is Ujwala's blog on her participation and experience.

At the Print-making Workshop - Insitute of Fine Arts, Dhaka Univ
A few assorted images ...

   
   
  
  
Click the thuumbnails for a full photo.

And it rained, a sudden storm that brought the temperature down. Every one went out into the outdoor corridors to enjoy the rain and cool breeze..and roasted peanuts [with spicy hot & salty 'masala'] in little newspaper packets that Ujwala bought from a vendor.

Here is a pulled-shot of a wall, an Ixora bush and the rain - just for fun! And another.

22nd May 2008 - A walk about at the Art College / Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University... with Stein Naevdal.