The constant movement, congestion and psychological pressures of life in Dhaka take centre stage in contemporary artist Kuntal Barai’s upcoming solo exhibition, Anatomy of Transit, opened recently at Plat-forms Gallery in Gulshan.
The exhibition, featuring paintings, drawings and mixed-media works, explores the relationship between movement, infrastructure, urban pressure and the everyday experiences of people living in the rapidly changing metropolis.
Running from August 15 to September 5, Anatomy of Transit examines how the systems and rhythms of the city shape the ways people move, wait, negotiate and survive within its increasingly dense urban environment.
At the heart of the exhibition is Dhaka itself, portrayed not simply as a physical landscape but as a living organism in constant motion.
In Barai’s visual interpretation, roads resemble arteries, intersections function like vital organs, while vehicles become symbols of an urban body that remains perpetually active yet frequently under pressure.
Traffic, crowds, buildings, roads, bridges and fragmented spaces appear throughout the works, reflecting both the physical and psychological realities of navigating one of the world's most densely populated cities.
The artist’s compositions bring together fragments of roads, vehicles, architectural structures, human figures and abstract forms, creating layered visual narratives that capture the density and fragmentation of contemporary urban life.
While rooted in observation, Barai’s works move beyond documentary representation to explore movement as both a physical and metaphorical experience.
The exhibition considers movement as a reflection of aspiration, displacement, uncertainty, routine and the constant negotiation between individual lives and collective urban existence.
“Anatomy of Transit is not only about traffic or transportation. It is about the human condition within a city that is always moving,” according to the exhibition concept.
“The exhibition asks how we navigate spaces that are constantly changing and what happens to our sense of identity, memory and belonging within that movement.”
Through the exhibition, everyday elements of urban travel take on new meanings. A road becomes more than a route, a traffic signal represents a moment of pause, a vehicle becomes a temporary space of isolation, while an intersection turns into a point where countless individual narratives meet.
The exhibition ultimately presents Dhaka as both infrastructure and lived experience, revealing the energy, contradictions, vulnerabilities and aspirations embedded within the city's constant movement.
Kuntal Barai is a contemporary artist whose practice engages with urban environments, social realities and the visual complexities of everyday life. Through painting, drawing and mixed media, he explores the relationship between people and the rapidly transforming spaces they inhabit.
Anatomy of Transit will remain open for the visitors till September 5 from 11 am to 8 pm at Plat-forms Gallery, House 12/B, 5th Floor, Road 55, Gulshan 2, Dhaka.