‘Splendor of Green’: Exhibition explores the beauty of foliage in fine detail

Updated : 3 October 2026, 13:33

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Faiza Ramim

‘Splendor of Green’: Exhibition explores the beauty of foliage in fine detail

Photos: Abrar Faiyaz Niloy

Inside La Galerie at Alliance Française de Dhaka, framed watercolours in shades of green, olive and gold line the walls under warm gallery lighting. Titled “Splendor of Green”, the show is the first solo painting exhibition of Suborno Chakraborty Tonmoy, a Dhaka-based contemporary artist whose work centres on plants.

The collection features studies of assorted leaves, morning glory and jasmine flowers, many of them completed in 2025. Executed in watercolour on paper, the pieces range from small framed works hung in measured rows to a monumental composition that fills an entire wall. That large painting presents a thicket of vines, grasses and broad banana-like foliage, with a weathered log and terracotta tones glimpsed behind the greenery. Translucent layers of colour give each leaf its own curve, shadow and sheen, so that even the densest undergrowth remains legible. Visitors tend to pause at the larger pieces and lean in to follow the finer strokes.

The direction of this practice took shape during the COVID-19 lockdown, when, because he had a lot of time on his hands, Tonmoy could examine the vegetation around him. The diversity of plant life and the distinct character of individual leaves held his attention and eventually shaped his artistic path. Since then, his paintings have rested on prolonged observation of small shifts in colour and structure.

Curator Sumon Wahed organised the exhibition around the varied forms, structures, colours and quiet rhythms of the natural world. Through the display, the artist hopes to encourage viewers to value their environment more by noticing details that usually pass unobserved.

The exhibition opened on September 22. Eminent artist Jamal Ahmed, Honorary Professor of the Department of Drawing & Painting at the Faculty of Fine Art, Dhaka University, attended the ceremony as a distinguished guest.