Arpan Bhowmik paints not just what he sees, but what he remembers, says Tarunima Sen.
There was a time when the sound of a tram bell, the sight of a yellow taxi weaving through narrow lanes, or the visual of a historical façade meant more than just a commute or a building—it was home, memory, and an identity.
In Whispers of the City: An Artist’s Journey Through India’s Iconic Cities, Arpan Bhowmik paints not just what he sees, but what he remembers. Presented by Easel Stories Art Gallery (Noida), this solo exhibition is a walk-through cities as they once were; and still are, for those who carry them within. From the rain-washed streets of Kolkata to the hushed courtyards of Lucknow and the timeless monuments of Delhi, Bhowmik revives the romance of places etched in the memory of a generation. His brush does not just depict cityscapes—it reawakens the feeling of holding a parent’s hand at a traffic crossing, the echo of a distant azaan, or the thrill of a childhood tram ride.
Born in 1977 in Janai, a town in Serampore, West Bengal, Bhowmik’s relationship with art began at the tender age of five. It matured through his formal education at the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta University, after a determined pursuit that began at Indian Art College in Dumdum. Early on, he stood out for his innovative approach: joining multiple sheets of A4-sized paper with adhesive to create larger watercolour compositions when no bigger paper was available. Even then, the ambition was evident, not to merely replicate the world around him, but to reframe it in his own visual idiom.
Today, this visual idiom has become unmistakably Bhowmik. The solitary yellow taxi poised beneath colonial arches, a tram gliding through a fog-laced morning, or hand-pulled rickshaws silhouetted against sunlit facades, each motif is rendered with a deep sense of closeness and a painter’s nostalgia. Bhowmik’s practice is rooted in acrylic on canvas, yet it carries the lingering softness of watercolour. Through a deliberately restrained palette, often limited to just three or four hues, he creates subtle tonal gradations that evoke the fluidity of watercolour, while maintaining the structural depth and permanence of acrylic. This technical interplay between material and memory allows Bhowmik to craft cityscapes that feel both immediate and timeless.
