Tollywood star Priyanka Sarkar opens solo show of young painter

The exhibition titled ‘The Search’ was held at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.

Ankita has had previous exhibitions in Mumbai and Pune but this is her first solo work and a maiden show in Kolkata.

Praising her works, Priyanka Sarkar said, “To be a part of such an art exhibition is a very enriching experience, she is so young but her work is so mature and she has done such an amazing job, I congratulate her. I am sure everyone will love her works."

Ankita who has been learning painting from a young age talked about her journey till today, “I do not have any formal education in art, I did hotel management and then I was flying with an airline for three years but I was painting continuously, I have always loved to paint."

"I did not enjoy flying, it became monotonous, so I left my job and came back to Kolkata, I have gone through a lot of ups and downs in my life and I did not know how to express it in words, paintings became my only way of expressing so that is how I started.”

The theme of the exhibition is human emotions; there are 22 paintings and three art installations.

The prices of her works start from INR 2000 and go up to INR 1.5 lakh.

When asked about the experience of putting together the whole exhibition, Ankita said, “This is my first solo exhibition, I have worked tirelessly for the past three months towards this exhibition, I feel extremely happy that finally it has all come together so beautifully, and I sincerely hope everyone likes it.”

On the nudes she painted, she said, “I have tried to depict the rawest form of human emotions, putting on clothes is like covering it with a façade, to show the emotions in their rawest form, the body needs to be free from clothes or any other covers.”

Apart from the paintings, there are three installations depicting the various constraints of the human mind.

About the installations Ankita said, “The installations are all connected to one another, the first with the mirrors and the cages represent the trap of the human mind, the mirrors are signifying this trap, next is the human figure made from tree roots,  this signifies how the mind gives birth to new thoughts when it’s trapped, and the last one is the door, the door signifies the way out of the mind trap, so the installations basically convey a story.”

The exhibit runs from 23rd Aug till 27th August at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.

(Reporting by Tirna Chatterjee, Photographs by Avishek Mitra)