Anisuzzaman's “Urban Ruminations” at Edge Gallery

Edge Gallery has organised a solo exhibition of woodcut prints by renowned artist Anisuzzaman Anis. The artist's 16th solo exhibition, titled “Urban Ruminations” opened on May 21 and puts together a beautiful collection of 70 life-sized works. Dhaka art lovers have never before seen such vast woodcut prints (6 ft x 12 ft, 3 ft x 12 ft, 6ft x 6 ft, 3ft x 6 ft) at any exhibition.

Anis' prints depict urban architecture, construction of human habitation and a city's structural design. His prints are closely related to geometrical and structural elements where one can easily gauge his passion for the language of architecture.

Through the years, Anis has tirelessly experimented with lines, forms, spaces, textures, tones and overall shapes and designs. He has gradually turned towards minimalism and has established this as a personal hallmark. The trait enables Anis to symbolically project our social and political dilemmas through his works.

The artist has quietly captured our morphing urban scenery and retold the story through his exhibited woodcut prints. Nostalgic and poetic in nature, the prints focus on subjects with x-ray vision, right through the flesh, to reveal the stark, brutal, and sometimes beautiful reality that we call progress.

It's the artist's take on European woodcut with a strong Eastern influence at the ongoing show. The exhibition takes art lovers through an intricate journey, created masterfully using carved wood to bring to light urban complexities of the present day.

Anisuzzaman is Associate Professor and Chairman at the Department of Printmaking of the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. A well-known printmaker of our country, his woodcut prints have become his personal hallmark. When Anis was a student of the Institute of Fine Arts (now, Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University), he studied construction and structural designs. For higher studies, he went to Rabindra Bharati University, India and Tama Art University, Japan. His series on certain themes earned much acclaim and the artist won Grand Prize at the 13th Asian Art Biennale (Dhaka) in 2008, among other prestigious awards.

Anis concentrated on woodcut printmaking when he was in Japan. During the time, he learned how light and shade can give dramatic effects to prints. Woodcut prints is about technique as much as about imagination, sometimes more about technique, he feels. After going to Japan, he explored varied aspects of woodcut prints.

The exhibition, opening daily from 10am to 8pm, ends on June 2.