Imagination rendered in Line &Weight

Dhaka was once abandoned for the chaos by Towfiqur Rahman, the renowned painter, printmaker and sculptor of Bangladesh has now returned after a decade of break from solo exhibition in the art gallery Kalakendra with his works of art. Though mainly worked in Iron welded sculptures, works of sketches and paintings are also placed alongside his dynamic creations.

The Exhibition titled ’Line-Form-Balance’ was inaugurated on September 13 with no official big arrangements but like a get togther, meeting the artists vision of calm and quiet introduction. The exhibition curated by Kala Kendra's CEO Wakilur Rahman, who arranged the drawings, paintings and sculpture in a harmonious design of light and shade that created an ethereal atmosphere for the visitors as entered into the gallery.

The quiet atmosphere though contrasts the sound of metal wielding, connects through the result achieved by Towfiqur Rahman. Educated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka and Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, Rahman accumulated his knowledge, creativity and skills into his mastery of Iron wielding. He built pieces that deliberately sits between the drawings, figurative and abstract compositions. His art style of line drawing raw sketches and brushworks showcases his vision of dynamism that line turned into forms and balance through his sculptures. His choice of subjects- nature, animals and humans, which is infused through his imagination to his creation joined the two dimensions of delicate forms. The Composite man and Dual Being are the example of his infusion, which appears as an emotion of endurance standing amidst the chaos. This approach is not a small infusion but a thematic choice to instill a sense of life into the metal that positions the outcome not as resilience or vulnerability but technical achievement and engineering of survival, which most contemporary Bangladeshi artworks focuses on. But Rahman showcased his interest in physics, complexity of line and forms and how they balances together, creating a three-dimensional complexity that doesn’t merely needs a 360 degree walking for the visitors to observe but forces them to think of what weight these artworks carry.

The exhibition ‘Line-Form-balance’ in itself is an unique approach that incorporates the artist’s biography, material choices and his desire to showcase the things he observed through imagination stands out towards the idea that surviving amidst the chaos and beyond nature is a matter of patience and survival instinct.