PRESS RELEASE
Name of the Exhibition: An Ancient Ballad
Date: 22 May - 10 July, 2026
Place: Gallery 1, Ground Floor, Emami Art
An Ancient Ballad brings together works across generations of artists to explore the recurring presence of the natural world, the human figure, and the animal form in modern and contemporary practices. Moving across photography, painting, printmaking, textile, ceramic, and wood, the exhibition looks at how certain images return over time while taking on new meanings shaped by changing material, social, and ecological contexts. What appears at first as a familiar visual language gradually reveals shifts in techniques, intentions, and sensibilities, illustrating how repetition becomes the site of difference.
The show brings together L. M. Sen’s early photographic studies with K. C. Pyne’s dreamlike figuration, where human and animal bodies slip between allegory and strangeness. Around them cluster contemporary practices in textile and clay - Arunima Choudhury’s eco-printed, story-bearing forests, Ajit Kumar Das’s natural dye kalamkari cloths, and Alakananda Sengupta’s ceramic meditations on womanhood and touch, which treat surface as a record of labour and ecological memory. Metal and sculptural works by Tapas Biswas, Subrata Biswas and Partha Dasgupta explore absent/hybrid bodies through balance, weight and folk-modern vocabularies, while Chandra Bhattacharjee’s works hold figures in suspended, moonlit interiors. Printmaking anchors another strand: Raja Boro’s constructed forms and Rahul Sarkar’s intimate, queer bodies use ink, plate and repetition to think through memory, identity and the slow emergence of an image.
This exhibition aims to centre the role of material and technique in shaping the meaning of an image. Leaves, bodies, and landscapes appear repeatedly, but never in the same way, carrying the traces of the hands, tools, and histories through which they were made. By placing early works alongside contemporary explorations, we highlight both continuity and transformation, offering viewers an opportunity to encounter familiar forms through new perspectives.
Participating Artists
Ajit Kumar Das
Alokananda Sengupta
Arunima Choudhury
Chandra Bhattacharjee
K. C. Pyne
L. M. Sen
Partha Dasgupta
Rahul Sarkar
Raja Boro
Sayandeep Kangsabanik
Subrata Biswas
Tapas Biswas
Quotes:
“We are delighted to present An Ancient Ballad, bringing together artists from across generations and mediums in an evocative dialogue with one another. The exhibition captures our commitment to placing historically important works alongside strong contemporary practices while fostering thoughtful, visually engaging encounters. This also situates the exhibition within the wider artistic histories of the East, where multiple generations of artists have worked through and redefined inherited forms.”
-Richa Agarwal
CEO, Emami Art
“An Ancient Ballad does not seek to resolve its histories but to hold them in suspension where image, memory, and matter remain in restless conversation. What emerges is more than a narrative, it is a field of echoes where the past insists on itself, quietly and persistently, on the terms of its return. To curate here is to, on one level, assemble objects but fundamentally it is an attempt to trace the conditions of looking, remembering, making, inhabiting and finding out.”
- Ushmita Sahu,
Director and Head Curator,
Emami Art
About the Artists
L. M. Sen (1898–1954) was a leading Indian artist, photographer, and teacher who lived and worked during the late colonial and early modern period. Born in Shantipur, West Bengal, he studied at the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, and later at the Royal College of Art, London. Sen worked across painting, printmaking, photography, and design, and was widely respected during his lifetime as a versatile and prolific practitioner. His works form part of important institutional and private collections and have been the subject of recent research-based exhibitions.
K. C. Pyne (1931–2017) was a major modernist painter associated with Santiniketan and Baroda. Known for his distinctive visual language combining myth, memory, and allegory, his works frequently explore the relationship between human and animal forms through symbolic and imaginative imagery. Pyne exhibited widely in India and internationally, and his works are included in significant public and private collections.
Arunima Choudhury (b. 1950, West Bengal) is an artist working primarily with natural colours on handmade paper. Her practice explores the relationship between nature, the human figure, and the environment through organic pigments and eco-printing techniques. She has exhibited widely in India and internationally, with solo exhibitions including Āranyaka (Emami Art, Kolkata, 2025), The Dark Edge of Green (Emami Art, 2022), and Khela (Seagull Foundation, Kolkata, 2007). Her works are part of significant private and institutional collections.
Raja Boro (b. 1994, Assam) studied painting at Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, where he completed his BFA and MFA. His practice draws from the ecology, memory, and lived experience of Northeast India, exploring the relationship between landscape, habitation, and identity through painting and mixed media. He has participated in several exhibitions in India and has received recognition in national art exhibitions.
Ajit Kumar Das (b.1957, West Bengal) is a textile artist known for his work with natural dye, eco-printing, and hand processes rooted in craft traditions. His practice explores the relationship between material, labour, and environment, often using organic forms and plant-based colours. His works have been shown in exhibitions focusing on textile, craft, and contemporary material practices in India.
Chandra Bhattacharjee (b. 1961, West Bengal) studied at Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. His work reflects on landscape, labour, and rural life through expressive mark-making and a strong material sensibility. He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions across India and his works are part of several private collections.
Tapas Biswas (b. 1968, West Bengal) studied at Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. Working across painting and mixed media, his practice engages with the human figure and everyday life, often combining narrative elements with expressive surfaces. He has participated in several exhibitions in India and abroad, and his works are part of private and institutional collections.
Subrata Biswas (b. 1972, West Bengal) studied at Indian College of Arts & Draftsmanship, Kolkata. His works explore the relationship between the human figure and environment through layered surfaces and textured forms. He has exhibited in several group exhibitions in India, and his works are included in private and gallery collections.
Partha Dasgupta (b. 1959, West Bengal) graduated from Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. Known for his sculptural practice, he works primarily with metal and constructed forms, investigating the human figure through skeletal and structural configurations. He has participated in numerous exhibitions across India, and his works are part of important private collections.
Alakananda Sengupta (b. 1968, West Bengal) works primarily with textile, natural dye, and eco-printing. Her practice explores material process, memory, and the relationship between cloth, body, and environment. She has exhibited in India and internationally and is known for her engagement with sustainable and process-based textile practices.
Rahul Sarkar (b. 1992, West Bengal) studied printmaking at Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. His work explores landscape, habitat, and ecological change through printmaking and mixed media processes. He has participated in several national exhibitions and workshops and continues to work with experimental graphic techniques.
Sayandeep Kangsabanik (b. 1994, West Bengal) studied painting at the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, completing his B.F.A. in 2020 and M.F.A. in 2022. His practice engages with figuration through layered, process-driven surfaces. Working primarily in painting, he explores the instability of form, identity, and presence through gesture, opacity, and erasure.
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Address
Emami Art, Kolkata Centre for Creativity 777, E M Bypass, Kolkata 700107
Date: 24.04.26
Place: Kolkata
