If one expected an art exhibition titled Beyond Boundaries to push the limits of imagination and artistic practice, one would have been disappointed
with the recent show by Ganges Art Gallery and Shimeesha Art. The only boundary the artworks seemed to be pushing was that of the state of West Bengal, that too only as far as Vadodara. One of the possible pitfalls of a group show is the lack of cohesion. Here, too, a disparate set of artworks by artists from Bengal and Vadodara was unconnected, thematically or stylistically, and had both hits and misses.

Aditya Basak and Atin Basak, for instance, were both at their finest technically — as is expected from artists with their experience. But there was nothing new about the works on display when it came to idea or style. Bansi Dholakiya’s grey landscapes were interesting for the way texture had been added to the paper with scratches. Arunangshu Roy’s totemic figure in thick strokes was terrifying. Mrinal Mandal’s stitched landscape was intricate and evoked the chaos of Varanasi. Hardev Chauhan’s watercolour on wasli paper was delicate and poignant. Srikanta Paul made great use of negative space and Srabani Sarkar’s evolving piece, which invited viewers to participate in its creation by writing a letter in their native language, was innovative. In Barun Pramanick’s intriguing sculpture, the legacies of Gandhi and Netaji merge as the former leads the Dandi march atop a horse with the latter’s famous hand gesture (picture). Rutvi Vakharia’s hand-painted postcards with crumbling walls were like bricks which came together to paint a picture of disrepair.

Adarsh Baij’s pen-and-ink recreations of Dalí’s famous photographs were unimaginative, as was Susmita Chowdhury’s caricaturish work. Arunava Mondal, Hemant Rao and Saumen Khamrui experimented with abstraction but there was nothing arresting about these works. Sukanta Sarkar, Pintu Biswas, Amit Chakraborty, Chandan Bowmick and Raju played with idioms and ideas that were clichéd.