Kolkata, 21 April 2025: The Bridging Culture & Arts Foundation (B-CAF) proudly bought to the city a Solo Exhibition by acclaimed Artist Malay Saha, Silent Narratives: Object in Dialogue, marking his return to the art scene after a gap of twelve years. The exhibition will run from 19^th April to 3^rd May, 2025 from 4 – 8 pm, except Mondays at 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. This exhibition marked a renewed engagement with his artistic journey, allowing for a more nuanced exploration of his evolution with subtlety and quiet conviction.

In an effort to combine artistic and personal synergies, B-CAF revisited its inaugural spirit with a distinctive and innovative approach. Each guest was asked to choose an everyday object placed before them such as a teapot, a pen or a spoon, and speak about its significance in their lives. They shared what the item symbolised, the memories it evoked, and the personal meaning it held. This inventive and engaging format led to a juxtaposition of different perceptions and augmented communication between artists, guests and visitors.

Malay, an artist from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant awardee, is a contemporary artist whose works are in the collections of prestigious museums, including the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Botswana National Museum, among others. His artistic journey, shaped by his formative years in Santiniketan during the Communist era, is marked by a deep engagement with materiality, space and power dynamics. Feelings of isolation during this period led him to imbue domestic objects—chairs, beds and pillows—with layered meanings. What began as mere representations of everyday objects gradually evolved into potent political symbols. The chair, in particular, emerged as a recurring motif, its anthropomorphic form embodying both presence and absence—a structure of power that he felt was missing from his own life as a student navigating institutional hierarchies.

Malay’s fascination with miniature painting, with its multiple viewpoints and fluid spatial constructions, plays a critical role in his practice. His engagement with this tradition was further shaped by his evening sessions with his teacher, K.G. Subramanyan, whose own explorations of multi-perspective compositions deeply influenced Malay’s approach. The division of space within his canvases, the rejection of a singular vanishing point and the construction of fragmented yet cohesive narratives all reflect this lineage. In his works, perspective is not fixed but shifts dynamically, compelling the viewer to navigate the image with an active gaze.

“My work is not conceptual; it is purely visual, as I give primary importance to the act of seeing,” says Malay.

His surfaces are often textured with a meticulous stitch-like pattern—a tactile memory derived from the coarse, woven duri upon which he once slept. This painstaking mark-making becomes an act of inscription, a form of labor that embeds personal history into the canvas, evoking both endurance and impermanence. The repetitive process mirrors the physicality of embroidery and weaving, transforming texture into both a visual and haptic experience.

“In this new body of work, Malay has made a decisive shift in form—from the structured geometries of squares and rectangles to the fluidity of circles. This movement signals an expansion of his spatial explorations, offering a sense of continuity rather than containment. Additionally, he introduces a radical departure from his earlier two-dimensional compositions by incorporating layered paper structures that elevate the surface. This shift invites the viewer into his space, a stark contrast to his previous works, where engagement remained observational, confined to a distant, multi-view perspective,” said Reena Dewan, Curator of the show.

This transition—from observing to inhabiting—marks an evolution not only in Malay’s formal language but also in his conceptual inquiry. The act of inviting the viewer into his constructed spaces reflects an openness, a gesture of inclusion and perhaps a reconciliation with the city. His decision to present this body of work as a solo exhibition in Kolkata is not merely a homecoming but a deliberate re-engagement with the cultural and artistic landscape that once shaped him. Through these works, Malay Saha continues to navigate memory, materiality and the politics of space with quiet yet profound intensity.