Kamrul Hasan Lipu’s 1st solo exhibition opens in Japan

The 1st solo exhibition of Japan-based Bangladeshi visual artist, designer, and cultural organiser Kamrul Hasan Lipu, titled “DOT: The Beginning of Everything”, opened at Gallery Shimizu in Yokohama, Japan, on Tuesday.
The extensive six-day showcase offers an intriguing encounter between the rich cultural traditions of Bangladesh and the clean, structural discipline of contemporary Japanese art. A total of 41 paintings, predominantly executed in acrylic and mixed media on canvas, are on display during the exhibition, mapping a profound visual dialogue built around memory, identity, and displacement.
Lipu’s visual vocabulary moves dynamically between rich figurative imagery and expressive, textured abstraction. His structural palette deploys highly intense color blocks--juxtaposing deep turquoise, emerald greens, and sea blues against raw, burning explosions of amber, crimson, and golden yellows.
“Through time and distance, my memories of Bangladesh have taken on new forms, allowing familiar faces, sari patterns, birds, and flowers to return through the colors of feeling,” Lipu explained. “By bringing my personal experiences into conversation with the ornaments and rhythms of Bengali folk art, I continue to search for a visual language of my own.”

Among the standout pieces featured in the curated collection are: 

Face in Rickshaw Colours: An acrylic work capturing a quiet face among flowers and ornamental birds, whose playful outlines and bright color margins recall the decorative visual language of traditional Bangladeshi rickshaw art.

Behind the Petals: A piece showing a woman’s face appearing through a dense tangle of leaves and blossoms, her eyes holding a striking stillness that subtly suggests partly concealed emotional depths. 

Conversations in Folk Imagery: A canvas depicting a densely woven world of faces, birds, and flowers where fluid lines pass seamlessly from one form to another, allowing human feeling and nature to converge in a common language.

The Spark of Freedom: A composition featuring vibrant green rising beneath a burning passage of red and orange as white breaks through the center, capturing the intense force of struggle alongside the first breath of independent release.
“DOT: The Beginning of Everything” runs daily at Gallery Shimizu, Yokohama, Japan till 25 October.