The exhibition was inaugurated by eminent sculptor Prof. Niranjan Pradhan. 

The exhibition, organised with the support of the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, is held by the Akademi every year with a view to encourage promising and talented artists of West Bengal not only by arranging a display of their works, but also awarding them awards and certificates of merit, after all entries received are judged by a panel of eminent judges for traditional art (patachitras, wood carvings, mats, masks etc.) and contemporary art (paintings, drawings, graphics, sculptures and photographs).

This year, a total of 137 traditional art and contemporary art items have been selected for display after eminent artists Prof. Dilip Mitra, Shri Atanu Bhattacharya, Prof. Ashim Basu, Sm. Mala Mukherjee and Shri Uday Deb, had judged all the 491 entries received.

The winners of awards were Anirban Mishra, Kamalendu Paul and Shapla Singha (for paintings); Pooja Ghosh (for drawings); Ananya Dalal (for graphics); Akshay Maiti (for sculptures); and Eshika Chandra and Provash Krishna Debnath (for photographs). Certificates of merit were given away to Santanu Debnath and Sayandeep Kangsabanik (for paintings); Subhankar Chakraborty and Srishti Das (for drawings); Akash Sutradhar and Rachita Bhowmik (for graphics); Enjamul Islam and Santu Roy (for sculptures); and Arghya Kundu and Aniruddha Pal (for photographs).

The Annual Art Exhibition 2018-19 is being held at the ICCR’s Bengal Art Gallery, Abanindranath Tagore Gallery and the Sculpture Court, and continued till Feb 12.