Mona Mahmud Chowdhury’s second solo exhibition, evocatively titled River and the Flow of Life, centralizes the flux that characterizes the life of human beings and that of nature. The exhibition also shows how both her style and content have changed over the years. From being an onlooker of the human scene with its moments of joy and sorrow, detachment and interaction, Mona has now become intensely involved in that scene, so that now she looks at it from the inside, feels its rhythms and its pulse and reflects and philosophizes on it. Her understanding of the human psyche has broadened over the years as she has probed deep into the complexities of life, human relationships and the agony and the ecstasy underlying our daily experience of living. Her canvas has a bolder and a more crowded look; the colours and forms appear expressionistic, but that perhaps is the result of her close-focusing on the psychological and existential moments of an individual. That individual, whether alone or in a group, seems to evoke a world, complete with references to time, history and nature.

The sixty or so works of Mona’s exhibition have mostly been done recently, although the collography and oils were done earlier. The staple of the exhibition however, are the chalk pastels, but there are some etchings and mixed media works as well. It’s a varied mix, and shows Mona’s versatility and skill in handling the different media. She has given titles to her individual works, relating to a general theme, which is suggested by the title of the exhibition.

S. Manzoorul Islam