Bengal artist bags top CIMA Award
Kolkata: West Bengal artist Suman Chandra was on Saturday named the winner of the 2022 CIMA Award for his coal dust, brick dust, charcoal, acrylic, and pen and ink on canvas work titled 'Black Grave 2'.
The first runner-up award went to Sonal Varshneya (Uttar Pradesh) for her work 'Kissa Goi' and the second runner-up to Akshay Maiti (West Bengal) for his work on terracotta Structural Anatomy.
Chandra received Rs 5 lakh, a trophy, and a solo show while Varshneya and Maiti were given Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively, along with a trophy each.
The awards were presented by the Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA) in collaboration with Art & Heritage Foundation at a special event held here.
"The art in CIMA Awards 2022 comes from the heart and soul of our country. They express the voices of the young generation of India and are all genuine, powerful and touch your heart and mind and that is what makes this show so exciting," said CIMA director Rakhi Sarkar.
Two special jury awards were given to Asis Kumar Mahakhud (Telangana) and Ravi Morya (Delhi). Both received Rs 1 lakh and a trophy each.
Special mention awards (Rs 50,000 and a trophy each) were given to Sayantan Samanta and Anirban Saha (both from West Bengal), and four merit awards of Rs 25,000 and a trophy each were presented to Jaladhar Naskar (West Bengal), Joydeep Bhattacharjee (Tripura), Satyaranjan Das (Odisha), and Subhankar Bag (Karnataka).
The director's choice awards of Rs 25,000 each went to Karnataka's Yogeesh P Naik and Shivi Yadav (Uttar Pradesh).
The 2022 CIMA Awards honoured veteran modernist Arpita Singh for her contribution to Indian art and Tasneem Zakaria Mehta for her contribution to the restoration and rejuvenation of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.
As part of the CIMA Awards show, the entire collection will be on display at two venues in Kolkata - CIMA Gallery and GEM Cinema till February 27.
For the fourth edition of the awards this year, 183 artworks from across the country were shortlisted for the final. The list of 13 winners and their works was selected by the final jury comprising R M Palaniappan, Manu Parekh, N N Rimzon, Astrid Wege, Kunal Basu, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Paresh Maity, and Kingshuk Sarkar.
Launched in 2014-2015, the CIMA Awards recognise and honour excellence in the visual arts.
The awards seek to bridge the gap between urban and rural India and are open to artists between the ages of 25 and 45 years - trained as well as self-taught - and cover paintings, sculptures, graphics, and emerging new media such as video art, installations, art performance, graphic novel, and digital art.
