A four-day annual fine arts exhibition began in the port city at Shilpi Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery of Institute of Fine Arts of Chittagong University (CU) on Monday.

CU Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury inaugurated the exhibition as chief guest.

CU Arts and Humanities Faculty's Dean Prof Sekandar Chowdhury, artists Professor Fayezul Azim, Professor Monsur Ul Karim and Institute Director Shaela Sharmin attended the inaugural programme.

A total of 159 artworks, both applied art, sculptures, graphics and paintings by students of the institute are on display at the exhibition.

The exhibition will remain open from 11am to 5pm every day and will end on January 26.

Complimenting the Institute's teachers' and ex-students' artworks, CU VC Professor Iftekhar  called on the Institute Director to include such exhibitions in their academic syllabus so that students can gain a practical orientation as the main objective of fine arts is developing the creativity of the artist.

Institute Director Shaela Sharmin said this exhibition is a part of academic activities. Such exhibitions will help sharpen the latent creativity of students who want to pursue different fields of art, she added.

A total of 17 students were given prizes for their outstanding artworks. Mohammad Mujahidur Rahman Sarkar, a Master's student of the Institute, won the best prize.