After a twelve-year hiatus, renowned artist Malay Saha returned to the art scene with a solo exhibition titled Silent Narratives: Object in Dialogue, which was proudly brought to the city by the Bridging Culture & Arts Foundation (B-CAF).

The inaugural event was graced by Hiran Mitra, Eminent Artist; Bonnya Bose, Cultural Entrepreneur and Curator; Ayan Sen, Eminent Architect; and Reena Dewan, Exhibition Curator, Femina Gamechanger Awardee & Director of B-CAF.

Malay, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient and a contemporary artist from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, has pieces in the collections of prominent museums, such as the Botswana National Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art. His early years in Santiniketan during the Communist era influenced his artistic development, which is characterised by a profound interest in materiality, space, and power relations. His sense of loneliness during this time prompted him to give everyday items like beds, pillows, and chairs multiple meanings. Over time, what started as simple depictions of commonplace items developed into powerful political symbols.

Malay’s practice is heavily influenced by his fascination with miniature painting, which features fluid spatial constructions and multiple points of view. His evening classes with his teacher, K.G. Subramanyan, who had a profound impact on Malay’s approach through his investigations of multi-perspective compositions, further shaped his involvement with this tradition. This heritage is reflected in the way he divided space within his canvases, rejected the idea of a single vanishing point, and created narratives that were both fragmented and cohesive. Because of the dynamic shifting of perspective in his works, the viewer is compelled to actively navigate the image.

His surfaces frequently have a finely detailed stitching pattern to them, a tactile recollection of the rough, woven duri he used to sleep on. By engraving personal history into the canvas, this laborious mark-making transforms into an act of inscription that evokes both enduring and transient. The repetitive process turns texture into a visual and tactile experience, reflecting the physicality of weaving and embroidery.

This shift from observing to inhabiting signifies a development in Malay’s conceptual inquiry as well as his formal language. By allowing the audience to enter his created areas, he is demonstrating inclusivity, openness, and possibly even reconciliation with the city. In addition to being a homecoming, his choice to hold this body of work as a solo exhibition in Kolkata represents a conscious return to the artistic and cultural milieu that influenced him in the past. Malay Saha continues her quiet yet profound exploration of memory, materiality, and the politics of space in these works.

The exhibition will run from 19^th April to 3^rd May, 2025, from 4 – 8 pm, except Mondays, at B-CAF.

This exhibition signalled a rekindled interest in his creative process and made it possible to examine his development in greater detail with nuance and quiet conviction.

Priyanka Dutta