Virtual Exhibition Catalog Essay

The Beauties and Diversities of the Iconic New York City

 

I am Rashik Ahmed and this is my Virtual exhibition. In this virtual exhibition, I am presenting the “Thematic Exhibition”. In this Thematic Exhibition, the specific topic I have chosen is to portray “The Beauties and Diversities of the Iconic New York City”. There will be some iconic and very beautiful paintings and artworks in this exhibition by various artists which will represent the enormous beauties of New York City. In this exhibition the paintings and artworks I have chosen were created by some honorable artists. The names and the acknowledgements are: Dmitry King, Leonaid Afremov, Angela Wakefield, Andrea Lotte, Stephen Fishwick, Suren Nersisyen, Mitchell McClenney, Samuel Durkin and Pete Rumney.

The reason I have chosen these specific topics and paintings is, First of all I love this city. I have travelled to around 12-13 countries all around the world, and finally settled in New York City, I have never seen so many beauties and diversities in a single city. Also this New York City has blessed me in many different ways. This city has helped me to discover myself. This city teaches us to become strong in every possible way. Which actually helps everyone whose foundation was built up in New York to survive to every possible hardship throughout one’s entire life. I believe I couldn’t be here where I am right now if I had not faced the challenges  of this city from the very preliminary stage of my life. So this exhibition is a tribute from me to my city.

So first of all, if I talk about myself, I was born and brought up in a very small and poor country, Bangladesh. Luckily my parents and family were upper middle class of the society, so that’s why I didn’t have to go through that much hardship during my early life. However when I was 21, me and my whole family migrated to The United States of America and we decided to settle down in New York City. Day by day I started falling for this blessed city. I used to explore the different parts of the city with my cousin all around the five boroughs. I started becoming amazed by seeing the beautiful places of new york city such as central park, Times Square, 9/11 memorial, World Trade Center and many more. Also this blessed city is a huge turning point of my life. It is inspiring me everyday to become the best in my life. When I compare this City to the others in the world, I think that I am very blessed and lucky to get the opportunity to live in this city with millions of privileges. 

So to pay tribute towards my very beloved New York City, I decided to pay an honor to New York city by different types of paintings and artworks which were done by different artists all around the world. In this exhibition I tried to portray the greatness of new york city through different types of artistic paintings by different artists all over the world. We will see the beauty of Times Square after a rainy evening. That basically symbolizes the busyness of new york city people even after a rainy storm, which is represented very beautifully by Bulgarian Artist Dmitry King. By the painting of Leonid Afremov we can see the rude beauty of winter in Central Park. Brooklyn Bridge and all the skyscrapers are the greatest historical symbols of New York city from a very long time, which has been represented by Angela Wakefield. By the painting of Andrea Lotte we can see the previous version of Twin Tower, Which was destroyed on 9/11. We can see the combination of Brooklyn Bridge and twin tower. We can also see the historical lady liberty painting by Stephen Fishwick. Also I chose the Subway tunnel painting by Mitchell McClenney. This one is also my most favorite artwork. This painting actually represents the middle class people’s journey in New York City. We take the subway train everyday in our life to reach our destination. Subway has become a very important part of every New Yorker’s life. And the artist has also represented it in a very decent way. The grand central terminal painting by Samuel Durkin is also very favorite of mine. The Grand Central Terminal is one of the most important stations for any New Yorker’s Life. One can go to literally anywhere in the whole new york state from this grand central terminal. This terminal is a very important interest for painters, Photographers and movie makers. The inner beauty of this grand central Terminal is so romantic and beautiful. Also the artist has portrayed the daily busyness what the people of new york goes through daily inside this iconic Grand central Terminal. And the Last painting is a mural in a wall. That is the ultimate face of New York City. It represents the cultural and racial diversity of New York City. New Yorkers are tough, we have to be tough, this place makes everyone tough. We love new york because new york loves all of us. Black, brown, asian, short, tall, gay, straight – New york Loves everyone. This is the best representation of the diversity and unity of the people of New York City.

While doing this Virtual exhibition, I came to discover more beautiful paintings and all of them on New York City. I was even more amazed that different artists all over different countries all over the world have painted a lot of paintings to portray the greatness of New York City. I also tried my best to represent the theme of New York City in the exhibition.