‘DOT: The Beginning of Everything’, the first solo exhibition of Japan-based Bangladeshi artist Kamrul Hasan Lipu is underway in Yokohama, Japan, featuring 41 paintings that explore memory, identity and cultural roots through the colours and motifs of Bengali folk art.

The six-day exhibition opened at Gallery Shimizu on October 20 and will continue until October 25, bringing Bengali cultural influences into dialogue with contemporary Japanese aesthetics.

The paintings, primarily created using acrylic and mixed media on canvas, reflect Lipu’s experiences of living away from Bangladesh and his continuing connection with the country’s cultural heritage.

His works move between figurative imagery and expressive abstraction, using vivid colours such as turquoise, emerald green, sea blue, amber, crimson and golden yellow to create layered compositions.

"Through time and distance, my memories of Bangladesh have taken on new forms, allowing familiar faces, sari patterns, birds, and flowers to return through the colors of feeling," Lipu said.

"By bringing my personal experiences into conversation with the ornaments and rhythms of Bengali folk art, I continue to search for a visual language of my own," he added.

Among the featured works, ‘Face in Rickshaw Colours’ portrays a face surrounded by flowers and ornamental birds, drawing on the decorative patterns and bright colours associated with traditional Bangladeshi rickshaw art.

‘Behind the Petals’ features a woman’s face emerging through a dense arrangement of leaves and blossoms, with her eyes conveying a sense of stillness and concealed emotion.

Another painting, ‘Conversations in Folk Imagery’, brings together faces, birds and flowers through flowing lines, connecting human emotions with elements of nature.

‘The Spark of Freedom’ uses vibrant green beneath a striking passage of red and orange, with white emerging at the centre to evoke struggle and the emergence of freedom.

Lipu said elements such as the red sun, green leaves, rivers and folk motifs frequently appear in his paintings because of his deep emotional connection to Bangladesh.

"As elements like the red sun, green leaves, rivers, and folk motifs naturally find their way into my paintings from my deep emotional connection to Bangladesh, its intrinsic colors of red and green signify life, energy, hope, and growth for me," he said.

Lipu began his academic studies at the University of Development Alternative (UODA) in Dhaka before moving to Japan. In 2012, he graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Fine Art (Painting) from the Toyo Institute of Art and Design in Tokyo.

He is the Founder and Chairman of Kahal Art Group, established in 2008, and Kahal Gallery. Through these platforms, he has organised cross-cultural exchange programmes, exhibitions and international art fairs aimed at introducing South Asian folk art to wider international audiences.

Lipu plans to organise a dedicated exhibition of the collection in Bangladesh in the future, allowing audiences at home to experience the works and share their impressions.

The exhibition is open daily at Gallery Shimizu in Yokohama, Japan until October 25.