"Intimate Fears" is the second solo exhibition of Anisuzzaman Sohel. It presents a diverse body of work across various media, from object making and paper drawing to digital media installation. The artist continues to delve upon the central themes of his oeuvre in "Intimate Fears": the alienation of the individual, the yearning for nature, the overwhelming power of entranched systems. Grim, often morbid, subjects in Sohel's artworks comprise weapons, (self) mutilations and skulls of various types and shapes but the viewer is not treated with the cliched dramatic renditions usually associated with these motives. Far from the tattoo shop aesthetics, the lines in Sohel'sdrawings are clear, the finishing of his objects impeccable. Installations, which represent a new ambition in the artist's production, are treated in the same fashion: their polished appearance challenges the immediate sense of repulsion that their subjects trigger. In this discrepancy lies the striking, powerful paradox of the artist's research; an apparent contradiction that adds poignancy to his oeuvre.
Bengal Art Lounge, Dhaka