Samir Aich’s (b. 1956) art comes through emotion, his is a poetic approach. It is both sentimental and powerful; expressionistic and minimalistic. Although Aich’s paintings are forceful, his ‘expression’ is introspective. It is this state of experience - of constant flux within a still mass, which engages the viewer’s attention. He shifted to abstraction in 1993 but returned to figurative art later. His current body of work is moving towards a simplification – a clearing away towards an economical depiction. His paintings are visually sparse with little surfacing or interior delineation. Samir Aich believes that an artist’s environment influences his work, thus, Aich’s canvasses reflect the dissonance of urban life. Yet, it is not a discontented discord. Samir Aich graduated from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata in 1978 and has been exhibiting his paintings since 1980.
