Inside Galleri Kaya, the walls burst with colours—bright, earthy, alive. Yet behind the pigments lies something more profound: a sense of time, of tradition carefully passed down, of stories that have traveled through generations. The solo exhibition features the works of Shambhu Acharya, a name deeply rooted in the world of patachitra, a traditional Bengali art form.
Each painting holds more than just myth and folklore; it holds reverence.
More than an artist, Acharya appears as a guardian of heritage, treating each stroke with the respect of ritual.
Patachitra, which translates to “cloth painting,” uses natural, handmade materials. Pigments are ground from brick, seeds, stones, and even riverbed soil. Tamarind seeds form the thickening agent, and brushes are made from goat hair. Every element connects the artwork to the land, to nature, and to history. The process itself becomes part of the narrative—slow, careful, and deeply rooted in custom.
Among the vivid tales of gods, rural scenes, and daily life, a different kind of work quietly stands apart—kushthichitra. Unlike the colourful patachitra, kushthichitra is rendered in earthy, monochrome tones using ink. These scrolls act as visual horoscopes, drawn at a child’s birth to map stars, planets, and cosmic positions. It becomes a document of life, capturing fate from birth to death. If the newborn is a girl, she appears in the artwork; if a boy, then he. Simple in appearance but rich in meaning, kushthichitra is a reflection of ancient astrological belief systems held closely by generations.
He is the ninth in a line of traditional artists stretching over 450 years. From a very young age, his connection to colour and form came naturally, rubbing bricks on floors, dragging leaves on walls, curious about the traces they left behind. That childhood wonder now lives in each canvas, shaped by patience and guided by tradition.
Scenes of everyday life flow through the exhibition, women fetching water, brides carried on boats, friends braiding each other’s hair, and a flute player glancing at a woman. Every figure, every gesture, tells a quiet story of a time, a place, and a people. The details speak not just of talent, but of lived memory.
In a world where art is often hurried, digitised, and diluted with factory-made colour, Shambhu Acharya’s work stands apart. There is honesty in the brushstrokes, devotion in the technique, and a deep sense of belonging in each scene. His children are now slowly learning the ways—the stories, the strokes, the rituals that shaped their father.
