Date: Saturday, 20 June 2026
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Venue: Emami Art, Ground floor, Gallery 1
Emami Art presents an evening of informal dialogue on art and making featuring artists Arunima Choudhury, Chandra Bhattacharjee, and Partha Dasgupta in conversation with Uma Ray, curator at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata.
This is a public-facing programme under the group exhibition An Ancient Ballad on view till 10 July 2026 at Emami Art. Join us to know more about Arunima Choudhury’s works with natural colours depicting the languid intimacy between nature and the human figure; Chandra Bhattacharjee’s paintings that attempt to widen and deepen the way we see our Earth; and Partha Dasgupta who investigates the tactile, structural, and transformative capacities of ceramics beyond conventional studio pottery.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Arunima Choudhury (b. 1950) holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Indian College of Arts & Draftsmanship, Kolkata (1974) and a Certificate in Graphic Design from Chitrabani (1978). Solos include Aranyaka (Emami Art, 2025), The Dark Edge of Green (Emami Art, 2022), Khela (Seagull Foundation, 2007), and Nature as I See (Emami Art, 2020). Group shows include Vivartan (NGMA, 2026), Garden of Infinite Desires (Emami Art, 2023), and Kolkata: Run in the Alley(Marres, 2022). She received the Shilpi Maha Samman (2022), and her painting Looking Back (2023) is in the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art collection.
Chandra Bhattacharjee (b. 1960) graduated from the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship (1986) and received a gold medal from Rabindra Bharati University. His solos include A Star Amongst Too Many (Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 2026), Primaeval (Bengal Biennale, 2024), The Hum of Unreasonable Silence (Art Alive, 2023), and Dissolving the Surface (Odisha State Museum, 2023). Bhattacharjee’s works are in public collections of the Museum of Bengal Modern Art, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Art, and Government Museum and Art Gallery. He was honoured with a Rashtrapati Bhavan residency (2020) and the Shilpi Maha Samman (2023).
Partha Dasgupta (b. 1959) is a ceramic artist trained at the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata and Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He has collaborated on terracotta architectural projects, Durga Puja installations, and public art. He has exhibited widely, including the First Indian Ceramics Triennale (Jaipur, 2018), RAKU Exposition (South Korea, 2016), and solo shows at Maya Art Space (2015) and Birla Academy of Art & Culture (2011). A recipient of Lalit Kala Akademi Research Grant, Senior Research Fellowship, and multiple Birla Academy awards, he has also worked with indigenous and rural communities across India.
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Uma Ray, originally from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, lives and works in Kolkata, West Bengal. Presently serving as the Curator at Birla Academy of Art and Culture, her approach is grounded in sensitivity and empathy to other practices and is informed largely by her own background as a practicing visual artist. She continues her practice, referring to them as “intimate engagements”. Ray’s works derive mainly from her surroundings and of late has continued to draw upon her memories of her hometown and its changing landscape over the years with social and environmental impact.
