KATHMANDU: Her face looks calm but her mind is filled with fear. She is surrounded by grenades. This is the scenario painted by Bangladeshi artist Najmun Nahar Keya in her series ‘Panoramic Feelings 14’ being exhibited at ‘Separating Myth from Reality Status of Women’ , International Art Festival at Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Centre (KCAC), Jhamsikhel.

The portrait is not merely confined to her state of mind, rather it portrays the mental state of everyone who has experienced conflict in Bangladesh. Backgrounds of almost all the paintings are occupied by the images of grenades, which easily draws the attention of viewers. Mirror reflection images are another asset of artist Keya’s pain-tings, which chiefly consists of vibrant colours like blue, red, orange and black.

‘Inner View’ and ‘Posing I’ are the two life size paintings by Christian I Peintner, an artist from Austria. In the first one, he showcases a naked woman on her knees, head bowed and hands joined in the middle of her breasts. The artist has used golden colour for the image while the background is a bit dim. Contrary to this, Posing I, shows a nude woman in grey standing with her reproductive organ covered, while a tall golden man holds her from behind. As the background is also golden, the man almost blends into it while the woman stands out. The way the artist has used colours to present as if light is shinning on them from one side brings out a beautiful image.

Three semi-abstract paintings accompanied by a video installation by artist Hilda Hiary (Jordan) depicts the pathos of women, who are confined and bound within certain territory. Her paintings give a gloomy impression of women while her video impressively portrays the limitations set for women by society whenever she tries to move.

Six etchings on card on honour killing by Jordanian artist Juman Al Nimri show four women trapped inside a cactus in the first one, while all of them get out of it but lie down on the floor in next painting. The remaining ones have all of them standing and by the time all of them are standing together the cactus loses its existence. More than anything the series clearly communicates the story it aims to tell.

Nepali artist Kriti Kaushal Joshi depicts woman as the Kitchen Goddess. His is a unique piece as he uses photomontage and mixed media on canvas to create a woman out of kitchen utensils. Giving an impression of a robot, photos of different utensils like steel glasses are used to shape the hands of the woman while plates shape her stomach and there is only one eye.

Describing Sri Lankan arts scenario of eighties and nineties in the lecture series organised at KCAC, Sri Lankan Artist Anoli Perera said, “Most of the artworks of that time depict the theme of violence since the country was completely engulfed by the war and conflict then.”

She projected art as a narrative of socio-cultural and political anxieties and introduced some of the works by Sri Lankan artists of those decades through a multimedia presentation. American artist Maureen Drdak’s lecture titled was ‘Transformative potentials of the Goddess Iconography of Nepal: A call for renewed examination for Social

and Cultural transformation’. In the later part of the programme Dr Salima Hashmi elucidated on the problems of representing Pakistani art.

The exhibition is on till November 10. For more information, call 4218048.