Avijit Dutta’s moody, immersive artworks explore the nebulous nature of imagination and time. Through his interpolation of methodical still-life natural elements, intimate figures, and hazy backgrounds, he conjures questions of memory and nostalgia. ... The artist’s atmospheric tempera paintings offer an intimate tour through fragments and episodes of bygone times, featuring places, people, nature, houses, cultures and personal histories. Dutta sees his works as “a manifestation of a trapped feeling or emotion of a specific moment which needs to be told through [his] brush”. Here, the past is not simply a moment frozen in time, but a dynamic, shape-shifting story he is determined to rewrite, reconstruct, and transform. Resembling a meandering dream or reverie, Dutta’s works carry the air of wandering through the bylanes of an old city, the abandoned rooms of a historic home, or flipping through a long-forgotten, precious photo album.

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