Seven master artists’ prints at Edge Gallery

An exhibition of prints by seven prominent artists of the country opened in the capital's Edge Gallery on Saturday. The exhibit, titled 'imPrint", features works of Murtaja Baseer, Monirul Islam, Shahabuddin Ahmed, Rokeya Sultana, Shahid Kabir, Anisuzaman and Rafiqun Nabi. Edge, the Foundation, is organising the exhibit.

While each artist's personal and unique style is highlighted in the exhibition, as a group they complement each other. The exhibition provides the audience with the rare opportunity to see prints by the noted artists in one space, displaying various artistic insights, styles and techniques. Murtaja Baseer, considered one of the foremost painters of Bangladesh, has established his individual style in art over the years. Throughout his illustrious career, Baseer has gradually transformed his working style from realism and semi-realism to abstract realism.

Monirul Islam was born in 1943 in Jamalpur and was a direct student of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin. Printmaking came his way while he left for Spain to study mosaic ferscos in 1969. He was particularly fascinated by etching and since then has been working on the medium. Shahabuddin Ahmed is a painter born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Shahabuddin served as a Platoon Commander in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, before studying art, and his experiences in the war are clearly reflected in his artwork.

Rokeya Sultana showed increased activity from the nineties. Her work became distinguished by the depiction of her self-realization and her lived experience. She represented her daily struggle in the known surroundings of her city.  Artist Shahid Kabir's paintings delve deep into the stories of common people who are daily wage earners and are born to struggle. Faces of underprivileged people, beauty of struggling women, objects from the daily life of ordinary people are the subjects of Kabir.

Rafiqun Nabi, born in 1943, is a Bangladeshi artist and cartoonist. Nabi's most famous creation is Tokai, a character symbolizing the poor street boys of Dhaka who lives on picking things from dustbins or begging and having a knack of telling simple yet painful truths about current political and socio-economic situation of the country. The exhibition is open daily 10am-9pm will June 17. Edge Gallery is located at Bay's Edgewater in Gulshan 2.