The Seagull Foundation for the Arts

08/05/2026

Seagull presents
Drawing Breath
Mahmud Husain Laskar

Opening
Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 6 p.m.
BIRLA ACADEMY OF ART & CULTURE
[Second floor] 108-109 Southern Avenue, Calcutta

Exhibition on view from 14 - 22 May 2026.
3 - 8 p.m. [Monday closed]


My work explores human relationships, childhood memories, fleeting reveries, and the interconnectedness of existence, often infused with a sense of nostalgia. I do not consciously seek to analyse, reason, or philosophise; instead, I allow my imagination to wander freely.

Painting, for me, is an intensely physical and immersive process—one in which the boundaries between myself and the work gradually dissolve. Fantasy plays a vital role in my practice. Dreams—about life, the future, the past, and the present—continuously surface and find their way into my paintings.

I have been working for the past three years for this exhibition, Drawing Breath. I see all the series within it as deeply interconnected, each body of work emerging from and feeding into the other. Drawing remains at the core of my practice; it is the foundation from which all my works evolve. I do not distinguish between my large canvases and my smallest works on paper—each medium offers its own possibilities, and I fully embrace and enjoy these differences.

Working from a very small studio, I am especially excited to see these works come together and expand within the larger space of the gallery.

Mahmud Husain (b. 1978) has been a practicing artist for more than two decades. He completed his BFA from Santiniketan in 2002 and his MFA from the College of Art, New Delhi, in 2004.

His notable solo exhibitions include the Kobe Biennale, Japan (2007); Apparao Gallery, Chennai (2008); Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata (2011, 2013); India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (2013, 2018, presented by Seagull Foundation for the Arts); Bihar Museum, Patna (2019); and an online solo exhibition on Artsy, supported by Seagull Foundation for the Arts (2020).

He was selected for the 48th National Exhibition of Art, organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, in 2006. He has also participated in the National Art Camp, Mizoram (Lalit Kala Akademi, 2019); National Art Festival, Gangtok (Lalit Kala Akademi, 2019); and an art camp in Kyoto, Japan (2007).

His group exhibitions include shows in Tokyo, Munich (Gallery Müller & Plate, 2003), and Seoul (Hybrid Trends, 2006), among many others.

Mahmud Husain is the recipient of the Ravi Jain Award (2002), the Camlin Professional Category Award (2003), and the National Academy Award by Lalit Kala Akademi (2006).

His works are held in private collections across Japan, Singapore, Germany, Canada, the UK, and the USA, as well as in prominent institutional and corporate collections including Gallery Müller & Plate (Munich), Gibsone Jessop Gallery (Toronto), the Ruia Group (Dunlop), MAP (Bengaluru), the Neotia Group (Kolkata), Lalit Kala Akademi, and Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata.

His art reflects the inner world of man—their dreams, fantasies, and insecurities. The artist lives and works in Greater Noida.

05/05/2026

SPRING TIME
Celebrating the Centenary of
Reba H**e

A SEAGULL EXHIBITION

Opening Thursday, 7 May 2026. 6 p.m.
at Waypoint
32 b, Sarat Bose Road, (opp Samilton Hotel), Calcutta 700025

on view till 24 May 2026. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays - Sundays

Reba H**e practiced her art in a ‘dizziness of the daily’ that would have left others in a complete state of helplessness. And awe. Furious. Fast. And constant. Not just to her art but to a way of being human-artist. Always the human first and then almost like a shadow. The artist. Her humanity shadowed her art and perhaps the other way around.

Reba H**e [1926 - 2008] was educated at Calcutta University and Calcutta College of Art. She lived and worked in Calcutta, New Delhi and in Santiniketan. Her works have been collected and archived in Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi; Art Heritage, New Delhi; Netherlands Embassy, New Delhi; Punjab Museum, Bahai Museum, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta and in private collections of art aficionados in India and abroad.

15/10/2025

I don't think we should be making this distinction between literature and history stridently. Historians have always used stories, unlike archaeologists who work from material culture. The text is important to the historian.

However, that text will always be one source. We try to correlate it with other sources. If you have a Jaina text, you will try and see what a contemporary Hindu text is saying.—Meera Vishwanathan

Announcing the second edition of the conference on History and Literature.

Details and registration here

https://www.historyforpeace.pw/post/on-history-and-literature-bulandshahr-17-18-november-2025

14/10/2025

Professional Development Course
🗓️ 19th–20th November 2025
📍 Shiv Nadar School, Noida
History for Peace, in collaboration with Shiv Nadar School, Noida, invites educators to the third edition of our Professional Development Course, exploring this year’s theme —Sifting Fact from Fiction.
After two years of engaging online sessions, this year marks the first in-person edition of the course—designed by teachers, for teachers. The keynote addresses will be delivered by Shwetangna Chakrabarty and Natasha Haque, with Sunita Biswas, Gowri Mirlay Achanta, and Madhusree Dutta Majumdar facilitating the sessions.
In a world where narratives are increasingly shaped by emotions, selective memories, and agenda-driven retellings, the line between fact and fiction often blurs. This course invites educators to critically examine how we can help students:
*Develop an evidence-based understanding of the past.
*Engage with multiple perspectives in history.
*Identify and challenge distorted or fabricated narratives.
As we gather to reflect, learn, and reimagine our approaches to history-teaching, this two-day course hopes to reaffirm the classroom as a space for truth, inquiry, and critical thinking.
Details and registration here: https://www.historyforpeace.pw/post/sifting-fact-from-fiction

09/10/2025

In our latest newsletter KK Suan Hausing and Kannan Gopinathan share their personal experiences on the Idea of Belonging

The ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, scheduled next in Delhi and then possibly other parts of the country places the burden of proof of 'belonging' on the people. The ECI’s function, to conduct elections hence, asking people to exercise their citizenship, has now become to questi...

24/09/2025

A glimpse of the workshop on Indian Constitutional History Education, conducted by the brilliant Vineeth Krishna from the Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bangalore.

Find full report here

https://www.historyforpeace.pw/post/clpr-pact-indian-constitutional-history-education-workshop-13-september-2025-report?utm_campaign=2f927219-ac09-4368-a225-b7e1ba73774d&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=b7fed33b-b93f-4188-92ec-f8c092441805