Bridging the Cultural Divide

Mind the Gap 5 and 6, acrylic on canvas, 135x135cm. 2014.

New Perspectives by Syed Iqbal is the latest endeavour of this Bangladeshi artist who lives in Canada and has made a niche in the art scene there. This particular show was held at Promenade Gallery, Mississauga in Canada in October. It is a colourful tribute to the cubist and expressionist era that somehow finds itself at the back bench of contemporary art. It this work remains a collectors delight and resonates with the art aficionados who find meaning and captivating messages of personal value.

Lord Krishna with Red 2, acrylic on canvas, 2014.

Added to this year's exhibits are bigger canvasses with a brighter palette. a lustrous amalgamation of colour, theme and textures illuminated the gallery's four walls. The 'Mind the Gap' series explicates the danger of being too intimate in love. Flashing red highlights the blue lord Krishna and his unfettered passion for Radha. The Kandinsky-inspired 'Urban Trap' series snatches one's attention to a little-understood Toronto landscape dotted with sky-piercing structures and the iconic CN tower. There are about half a dozen other works from Iqbal's famous 'Mindscape' series that debuted first in Dhaka's Bengal gallery in 2001.

The artist's workmanship synergizes the hidden sentiments of the East and West. This recent exhibition has been different both in its versatility and volume. Despite the usual challenges – both financial and personal, Iqbal as an artist has come of age and his mature palette and ease of execution proves that he has found his comfort zone.

His simple seductive illustrations, upon closer inspection give the impression that his cues are from the nature, human passion and their perplexed embodiments, rendered with the contrasting emotions of humanism, depravation, seduction and the savagery of examining the emotional depth. Love is Iqbal's centrality; seductiveness is the soul; romances the resonance.

Gautama 6, acrylic on canvas, 75x75cm, 2014.

I've been familiar with Iqbal's works for over a decade now, but it was the first time I had had a more serious look into the subtlety of his creation and the substances of the elucidations he presented anew. Why an artist should be so engrossed in painting images of things super-natural, surreal and even esoteric? The answer popped out almost instantly: unless the passion for delving deeper into the nature of things haunted someone constantly, he or she couldn't have traversed so deep into the realm of beauty. This relentless quest for the true form of things is as much a product of yearning for the truth in the Platonic dispensation as it is the Gandhian way of echoing, “Art is beauty, beauty is truth.”

Detractors will clamor that abstractions are hard to fathom and assimilate, but 'abstraction with depth' – as Iqbal's works often are – is the creation of cosmic-proportional imaginations. In this particular exhibition, Iqbal displayed works of modernity in the most ironic and surrealistic manner. The totality of his workmanship reflected randomness, subtlety, glitter and the sheer eeriness often visible in his personal traits.

Urban Trap 4, acrylic on canvas, 105x105cm, 2014.

One common denomination of his works is the penchant for treading acrylic on canvass. This predisposition he tries to sport time and again. That may be why his female forms are so captivating in their inducement and the nature blooms with so much of blushes and brightness in his brushes. If the 'Tears of Nature' and the 'Mindscape' had earned him recognition in the past, the 2014 Toronto exposition is a clear example of how far he has come.”
Iqbal has championed Bangladesh in Canada through this exhibition. Inaugurated by Dr. Amit Chakma, President and Vice Chancellor of Western University of Ontario, an illustrious Bangladeshi origin academician in the Western hemisphere, this exhibition brought together a large number of Bengali diaspora members and other south Asian communities. The CEO and curator of the South Asian gallery of art, Ali Adil Khan, spoke highly of Iqbal's talents and versatility. At this occasion the local city councilor Jim Tovey confessed to the lure of Iqbal's works as he claimed, “I escaped my campaign works for the upcoming election to see how beautiful Iqbal's artisanship has been.”

Bangladesh should be proud of Syed Iqbal who is promoting the image of an art-friendly, culturally rich nation and community.