‘Rickshaw Art Exhibition’ at Zainul Gallery

Rickshaw, a traditional eco-friendly non-motorised vehicle in Bangladesh, is difficult to imagine without decorations and paintings done by local self-taught artists.

This creative work has now become a sophisticated form of art as ‘Rickshaw painting’.

The art-lovers, who are yet to experience the genre, could make plans for today as it marks the closing day of ‘Rickshaw Art Exhibition’, a weeklong group art-show at Zainul Gallery of Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA) on the Dhaka University campus.

The show has been arranged as part of ‘Dhaka Rickshaw Fiesta Week 2013’, a joint-collaboration of Japan-Bangladesh governments.

Japanese Ambassador in Bangladesh Shiro Sadoshima inaugurated the festival on 13 March as chief guest. The inaugural programme was also attended by Professor Syed Abul Barek Alvi, dean of FFA and Dr Mohammad Iqbal, an assistant professor of FFA.

The exhibition features a total of 64 attractive paintings by six professional rickshaw painters including Syed Ahmed Hossain, Dherendra Chandra Das, Rafiqul Islam, Saleh Mohammed and SM Samso.

The artworks, figurative and natural scenes, portray different types of animals like lion, tiger, elephant, giraffe and monkey singing and playing instruments.

Some images represent a dreamy world of Dhallywood, capturing the action, romantic and dramatic sequences of Bangladeshi films while others take on busy places of Dhaka city including Kamalapur Railway Station, Matijheel Shapla Chattar and Sadarghat Launch Terminal and others.

Rural scenes, such as waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, chickens, cows, ducks, palm trees, water lilies and boats sailing across rivers and lakes are also depicted though some paintings.

The exhibition is open to all from 11:00am to 8:00pm until 20 March.

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