Uttam Karmaker's solo art exhibition in Taunton Library

Uttam, who is well known to customers at the Royal Taste eaterie and takeaway at Heron Gate, is staging a solo art exhibition starting next month (December).

The event, entitled No More Darkness, runs from Monday, December 13, until Saturday, January 8 at Taunton Library , in Paul Street.

Uttam has studied and exhibited in his native Bangladesh, Italy, the USA, Africa, Japan, India and many other countries.

He said: "During the pandemic, I did a lot of artwork such as watercolour, sketches, drawings and some mixed medium art.

"My style is expressive abstraction, which I've been working on since 2001.

"Before that I worked in a classical and expressive style from the time I was very young and beginning my academic life. Since then I have slowly come round to changing my style.

"I recommend visitors to the exhibition try to study my works very quietly and try to get inside their minds and into my artwork.

"I hope they are able to find out my ideas, my feeling, my deepness and my spirituality.

"I work for humanity, to save nature, for women's suffering, society.

"It would give me great satisfaction and be a big success for me if visitors were happy to visit my artworks."

Uttam's exhibition is being opened on December 13 by Taunton Mayor Cllr Sue Lees.

He said he is grateful to Cllr Lees, Taunton Library and Dave and Renee Durdan, who have championed his work.

"Our planet has been suffering for a long time due to Covid and now is the time to awake," said Uttam.

"I'm happy to be able to express something from that period when these ideas were deposited in my mind and my heart.

"I want the people of Taunton to visit the exhibition to see my creations, my artworks, so they have some idea about the concept of what I do."

Uttam is donating 25 per cent of the sales from the exhibition, which is open Mondays to Saturdays, to the Somerset Community Foundation charitable trust.