The Lost Fragrance of Memory
Recent Paintings by Suman Dey
October 14 – December 30. 2023
Ground floor, Gallery 2, Emami Art
The exhibition showcases the most recent paintings by Suman Dey, one of the prominent, talented artists from Bengal working in the language of abstract art.
A Kolkata-based, self-taught artist, Suman Dey (b.1981) studied modern art and artists in books, magazines and galleries, teaching himself the artistic idioms by combining this with conversations with well-known senior artists. His early mythological paintings showed his reliance upon the lyrical style of the Bengal school paintings. But his later mature work in the mid-2010s, especially those based on nature, shows that he gradually dispensed with narrative styles and moved from the figurative to a non-figurative pictorial approach, becoming redolent and poetic.
During the last five years, as evident in his large-scale works on display, Dey has created compelling abstract shapes and forms and rapidly developed a powerful personal style for which he is better known. His works are evocative, intimate and rich in tonality. Dey’s characteristic paintings include forms distilled from structures and objects of the visible world, capturing the essence of sensual enjoyment of phenomenal life and associated moods and memories.
The exhibition, which opens on October 14 and is on view through December 31, 2023, celebrates the abstract worlds of Suman Dey, exploring the painting’s intricate relationship with time and memories.
Suman Dey is a self-taught and still a highly talented and prolific painter working in the language of abstraction. We are delighted to host ‘The Lost Fragrance of Memory’, the first major solo show of his large-scale abstract paintings for which he is better known. I have known him for almost a decade and am particularly fond of the subtle treatment of forms and colours in his paintings, which are evocative, layered and rich in mellow tonality. I hope the students and art lovers will enjoy the exhibition and find Suman Dey’s work exciting and worthy of artistic discussion and debate.
- Richa Agarwal, CEO, Emami Art
Artist’s bio (b 1981)
Suman Dey is a young contemporary artist based in Kolkata. Self-taught, he works in the language of abstraction, distilling the visible form into an abstract motif.
Suman Dey has exhibited widely in India. He participated in solo shows at Taj Bengal, Kolkata (2011, 2014), ECA Art Walk, Kolkata (2011) and Chemould Art Gallery, Kolkata (2008). His works have also been shown in many duet and group exhibitions in the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2009, 2015, 2017); Shilpi Art Gallery (2008); in the Birla Annual Exhibition at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata (2018, 2016); in the Annual Exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2017), in the All India Exhibition at Emami Art (2016, 2017), in the Annual exhibition organised by the Rajya Charukala Parisad (2016); State Gallery of Art, Hyderabad (2018), India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (2018, 2022, 2023) and in a Group Exhibition, 2020 at Emami Art, Kolkata, among others.
He was awarded the Certificate of Merit for his work in the All-Indian Exhibition at Emami Art 2017. Suman Dey lives and works in Kolkata, India.
