The solo exhibition titled “Self and Others” by Hasura Akther Rumky has begun at La Galerie Alliance Francaise de Dhaka. The exhibition’s opening ceremony was held on Friday, January 27, 2023, in the presence of eminent artists Shahabuddin Ahmed and Shomi Kaiser, as well as actor and cultural activist Shomi Kaiser. The exhibition will be open to all until Wednesday, February 1, 2023.
People are the main subject of Hasura Akther Rumky’s paintings. The characteristic of her anthropomorphic paintings can be understood in light of the adage of Da Vinci, “A man’s face is the window to his or her soul.” Rumky, who is proficient in the use of pastel, acrylic, charcoal, and ether materials, did not depict things that were only passingly known; instead, she attempted to connect with something that was beyond form—the invisible realm. And in the painting, there is illusion and longing for human connection. In her works based on “Rickshaw and Rickshaw Puller,” the dialectical formula that we find in the bond or conflicting presentation of blackness and color ultimately reveals the essence of life. The viewer’s mind is made aware of the fact that life is progressing without being hampered by melancholy. In her artwork, the fluttering of pigeons’ wings, which represents the couplet of mother and kid, is merely an expression of joy and sound. The enigma of beauty is endless. The artist is haunted by the cloistered form of “I” and the people around her, especially Rumky, who has looked at the rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers of Dhaka with deep compassion.
At the Department of Oriental Art in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka, Hasura Akther Rumky earned both her BFA (honors) and MFA degrees. She has received countless honors, including the Grand Award at the “Bangabandhu International Art Exhibition” at the Kahal Art Gallery in Japan in 2021 and the Honorable Mention Award at the 6th Oriental Painting Exhibition conducted by OPSG in 2016.
