There are some lives that feel like long, winding paths,full of turns, crossroads, and unexpected openings. For visual artist Sunil Kumar, life itself has always been a road walked with wonder, questions, and dreams. From the time he was a child, he felt as though he were walking along invisible trails that called out to him. “I have been walking paths since childhood, with dreams,” he often says, and those early footsteps eventually shaped the artist he is today.
For Sunil, the journey has never been about rushing to a destination. Instead, it is the path itself,its stories, its people, its joys and heartbreaks,that fuels his art. “In the journey of life, we all rush to achieve success. I am walking the path tirelessly too,” he reflects. But he admits that he still feels he is becoming an artist, not an artist already made. The title is sacred to him, heavy with dignity and responsibility.
Sunil often describes life as a giant road filled with countless smaller paths leading in every direction. Each new turn has shaped his sense of purpose. People, society, country, nature,everything becomes part of that growing map. He sees the world as a place where every experience, every face, every moment offers a new story waiting to be shared.
“I love humans,” he says simply. That love appears strongly in his paintings, where he often recreates real-life moments,joy woven with sorrow, tenderness mixed with struggle. Nature, too, is a constant companion in his artworks. It is, in his own words, “the great deity of my creation.”
But his path is not filled only with beauty. While walking through life, Sunil has also witnessed social injustice, violence, inequality, and the quiet suffering that hides behind daily routines. “I have found tragic stories of the inhumane sorrow of society’s injustice, and I have tried to paint those stories on my canvas,” he explains. His work gives voice to emotions that are often left unspoken,a silent record of human endurance.
One striking symbol in Sunil’s paintings is machinery,nuts, bolts, screws, gears. To some viewers, these elements look modern and decorative. But to him, they hold deeper meaning. Modern life is full of machines that make daily tasks easier, yet they also create distance, accidents, and obstacles. “Although machines help us in our daily life, on the contrary, they have caused various incidents. Which is a big obstacle in our path of life,” he says.
In his visual philosophy, these mechanical parts are not just objects but metaphors for society’s emotional machinery. The cold metal, rigid gears, and repetitive motion reflect a growing distance between people, a modern life that operates efficiently yet without tenderness. For Sunil, machinery reveals how society functions like a system: structured, mechanical, and emotionally detached.
This symbolism deepens when applied to women’s experiences. Bolts and gears become signs of the pressures, expectations, and discriminatory systems that tighten around them, forms of domination and silent hostility. Set against the softness of the female form, the machinery appears harsh and indifferent, representing a world engineered to overlook women’s emotional realities while relying on their resilience.
By opposing the mechanical and the human, Sunil exposes a society where empathy has rusted and women often carry the weight of these cold structures. His paintings become quiet protests, revealing both human connection and the metallic barriers that threaten to suppress it.
These personal philosophies and observations have shaped his exhibitions over the years. One of his earlier shows, Stories from Path, marked his third solo exhibition. It captured the many voices and visions that he gathered while walking his life’s journey. Each painting felt like a companion, a memory, or a lesson collected on the road.
But his artistic journey continued to grow, leading to his fourth solo exhibition, Immersion in the World Path, held at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre in Gulshan, Dhaka. Jointly organised by the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre and the Indian High Commission, the two-week exhibition opened on September 18 and drew enthusiastic viewers from various backgrounds,students, fellow artists, art lovers, and cultural thinkers.
Here, Sunil explored a theme close to the hearts of many Bengalis: Sharadiya Durga Puja. Through his paintings, he captured not only the spirit of the festival but also the emotions and experiences of Bengali women who live this celebration in their own unique ways.
The women in Sunil Kumar’s paintings are mothers, daughters, lovers,even quiet observers of life. They carry stories within their eyes and gestures. Some of them glow with joy, some grieve quietly, while others wait for something unnamed.
Waiting for You, one of his mixed-media pieces, shows a Bengali woman preparing her home to welcome guests during Durga Puja,a moment full of warmth, excitement, and cultural pride.
In another work, Waiting for Someone Special, he portrays a pregnant woman standing beneath the moon. On her womb rests a lotus, glowing like a symbol of purity and love. The painting celebrates motherhood not as an idea, but as an intimate, sacred bond.
His paintings of women are not idealized fantasies. Instead, they are emotional realities,reflections of love, labor, waiting, sacrifice, and hope.
Through this lens, the maternal figure can be read as a symbol of every “innocent mother” caught in the crosscurrents of war, displacement, and discrimination. Her body becomes a quiet testimony to those who continue to cradle life even as the world around them fractures. Viewers might sense echoes of women in conflict zones, places like Gaza, where motherhood persists amid loss and uncertainty. The artist seems drawn to the paradox of a body that protects while remaining vulnerable, a womb that holds hope even when the world cannot guarantee safety.
Thus, his work speaks not only of personal bonds but also of collective ones: the mother as country, the child as people, the embrace as a fragile promise that love can survive even in the harshest conditions. In this way, he elevates motherhood into a universal symbol of resilience, tenderness, and unbroken spirit
Perhaps one of the most powerful paintings in the exhibition is Goddess Durga, an oil on canvas that depicts the fierce battle between the goddess and Mahishasura. The traditional story of good triumphing over evil comes alive with Sunil’s colors and lines. The work does not merely illustrate a myth; it becomes a symbol of courage in everyday life,a reminder that people constantly fight their own demons, visible or invisible.
While Sunil is deeply connected to the human form and natural imagery, he also explores experimental abstract styles. Many of his works carry a quiet sense of protest. They speak against discrimination, oppression, and the injustices he has witnessed in society. However, his protest is not loud or aggressive. It is human,deep, emotional, and persistent. His paintings call for unity, kindness, and connection in a world often divided by fear and inequality.
Among the more intriguing artworks is Nazrul Anecdote, a charcoal painting featuring a bust of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. Around the bust, men, women, and birds engage in symbolic discussions, suggesting the poet’s lasting influence on society. The artwork feels like an echo of history speaking into the present,another sign of how Sunil blends culture, memory, and emotion into one visual language.
“My success lies in the love and touching of the hearts of my audience. May beauties flourish, may humanities flourish!”
Sunil’s artistic path continues to grow, branching out like the very roads he loves to speak about. With 54 artworks exhibited in this recent show,using acrylic, charcoal, watercolor, brush pen, pastel, and oil,he demonstrates not only skill but a restless spirit searching for expression.
He walks the Worldpath with patience and passion. The journey may be long, but he embraces every moment. And through his art, he invites us to walk beside him,to see through his eyes, to feel through his heart, and to discover beauty even in the hardest corners of life.
As he continues onward, carrying his colors, stories, and dreams, one thing becomes clear: Sunil Kumar’s path is not just his own. It has become a shared journey,one that will keep expanding, touching lives, and reminding us of the power of humanity, empathy, and art.
