catalogue #1
DESCRIPTION
Quarterly Catalogue of Sri Lankan Contemporary ArtTRANSCRIPT
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CATALOGUE # 1
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Saskia Fernando Gallery (SFG) was established in February 2009. At SFG we present and curate exhibitions for contemporary artists from Sri Lanka and/or working and living in the country. Our aim is to expose the island’s contemporary art scene both locally and internationally.
Catalogue #1 is the first of our printed quarterly catalogue. This contains selected works by the artists we are working with at present, more of which can be viewed on our website catalogue.
We believe that art is personal, whether an addiction, an interest or an investment. At SFG we are dedicated to presenting the very best of contemporary Sri Lankan art.
Saskia Fernando Gallery Director Saskia Fernando Gallery
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CATALOGUE # 1A q U A R T E R L Y C A T A L O G U E O F S R I L A N K A N C O N T E m p O R A R Y A R T
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Anoma Wijewardene __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1
Anup Vega ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 4
Asvajit Boyle ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6
Chandraguptha Thenuwara _______________________________________________________________________ 8
Deshan Tennekoon _________________________________________________________________________________ 11
Dumith Kulasekara _________________________________________________________________________________ 13
Gayan prageeth ____________________________________________________________________________________ 16
Jacob pringiers _____________________________________________________________________________________ 19
Jagath Weerasinghe _______________________________________________________________________________ 21
Kingsley Gunatillake _______________________________________________________________________________ 24
mika Tennekoon ____________________________________________________________________________________ 26
Nadia Haji Omar ____________________________________________________________________________________ 29
pala pothupitiye ____________________________________________________________________________________ 32
prageeth manohansa ______________________________________________________________________________ 35
Rohan Amarasinghe _______________________________________________________________________________ 39
Ruwan prasanna ___________________________________________________________________________________ 42
Samuel Niruban ____________________________________________________________________________________ 45
Sanjeewa Kumara __________________________________________________________________________________ 47
Saskia pintelon _____________________________________________________________________________________ 49
Sujeewa Kumari ____________________________________________________________________________________ 52
T.Shanaathanan ____________________________________________________________________________________ 56
Vajira Gunawardena _______________________________________________________________________________ 59
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ANOmA WIJEWARDENE
Born in 1951 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Anoma Wijewardene is one of Sri Lanka’s most internationally established female Sri Lankan artists. Wijewardene completed her BA and mA at Central St. martins College of Art in London and she is represented by SFG in Colombo and has representative galleries in both London and Sydney. Her solo exhibitions have been staged in the UK, the maldives, Sri Lanka, Australia, India and malaysia. She has participated in group shows in the UAE, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and malaysia.
Wijewardene’s art practice consists mainly of pastel and watercolour on layered paper. In the past 7 years Wijewardene has begun working on digital pieces and video installation, presenting her strong social and environmental views as a contrast to her heavily spiritual, surreal canvas and paper pieces. Her most recent show in Colombo consisted of three parts staged at SFG paradise Road Galleries and the recently renovated Dutch Hospital complex in the center of Colombo’s business district.
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ANOmA WIJEWARDENE, 2012, Ngungwe Forest, Rwanda, ipad Digital, limited edition print, 41cm x 31cm
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ANOmA WIJEWARDENE, 2012, The singing winds, The lucid light, Our body is this earth, This earth our body, mixed media on paper, 148cm x 92cm
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ANUp VEGA
Born in Sri Lanka in 1967, Anup Vega is Sri Lanka’s most skilled draftsman and self-taught artist. Vega’s body of work consists of oil, acrylic and watercolour on canvas, board and paper. They depict nature, self-portraits and the artists’ spiritual beliefs.
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ANUp VEGA, 2005, Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 194cm x 80cm (x3)
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ASVAJIT BOYLE
As a poster designer and illustrator Asvajit Boyle has produced work for fringe theatre companies, electronic music performances, a national disaster awareness campaign and the Identity 101 limited edition t-shirt project. In 2010 Boyle directed the design of the inaugural Jaffna music Festival. He is also a DJ and producer of electronic music.
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ASVAJIT BOYLE, 2011, Moth, Limited Edition Offset Printed on 120 GSM Conqueror Paper, 58cm x 43cm
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CHANDRAGUpTHA THENUWARA
Born in 1960, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Chandraguptha Thenuwara is one of Sri Lanka’s most established artists and the countries most skilled portrait painter. After completing his Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka, Thenuwara went on to complete his masters in Fine Arts with Honours at the moscow Institute in Russia, followed by a masters in philosophy at the postgraduate Institute of Archeology in Sri Lanka. Thenuwara has staged solo exhibitions in Sri Lanka, Russia, and most recently in the Netherlands. He has participated in group shows throughout Asia, Europe, North America, and Russia.
Thenuwara exhibits his work with SFG as well as at a self-curated annual show held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on 23 July to commemorate Black July, an anti-Tamil pogrom where attacks were carried out by mobs in Sri Lanka in 1983. A true activist at heart, Thenuwara dedicates his artistic practice to exposing the political and social climate of Sri Lanka. His most recent body of work consists of ink on paper drawings, while his practice includes oil on canvas, wood cut prints, etchings, sculpture and installation.
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CHANDRAGUpTHA THENUWARA, 2011, Guns, Ink on paper, 49.5cm x 50cm
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CHANDRAGUpTHA THENUWARA, 2011, Thorns, Ink on paper, 49.5cm x 50cm
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DESHAN TENNEKOON
Deshan Tennekoon read Law at King’s College London before inexplicably pursuing a career as a designer and photographer. He was co-founder of the capital’s first city guide and of Trishaw mafia, a limited edition t- shirt company. He received a Fulbright Award in 2009 to conduct a photography project at the University of California, Berkeley. The project-a work in progress-examines the many relationships of humans to built aquatic spaces.
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DESHAN TENNEKOON, 2011, Silly Young Fools, Limited Edition Offset Printed on 120 GSM Conqueror Paper, 58cm x 43cm
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DUmITH KULASEKARA
Born in 1979, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dumith Kulasekara created a stir with his solo show titled ‘The Symbolical Impossibility of Disavowing Trauma’. Kulasekara is easily the most skilled young painter that the island has seen in recent times and this particular show took three years to complete following his graduation with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka. Kulasekara continues to lecture painting at the university but is now looking towards completing his masters in Fine Art overseas. Kulasekara has staged two solo exhibitions locally and participated in group shows in the UK, Sri Lanka and France.
Kulasekara’s paintings and installations present an entirely new dimension to what is referred to locally as the 90s movement, a group of artists who changed the face of Sri Lankan contemporary art. Kulasekara’s paintings form a dialogue with the social, political and gender politics that these painters confronted by presenting their themes by using stronger visuals and concepts based on Freudian theories and his first hand experience of Sri Lanka’s recent turbulent past.
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DUmITH KULASEKARA, 2009, Crying Masculinity, Oil on Canvas, 122cm x 122cm
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DUmITH KULASEKARA, 2010, The Eighteenth of May, Reminiscences of Masculine War, Acrylic on Canvas, 172cm x 214cm
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GAYAN pRAGEETH
Born in Sri Lanka in 1980, Gayan prageeth completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka. He has held one solo exhibition at paradise Road Galleries, and has participated in group shows in Sri Lanka consistently over the last ten years.
prageeth’s practice includes acrylic on canvas and pencil on paper works that are inspired his life’s emotional journey. His most recent works depict the artist himself as an angel surrounded by surreal landscapes with hand-written inscriptions. prageeth’s signature works are small in size and contain a detail and technique for which he is increasingly renowned as one of few of his generation who have chosen to focus on his artistic practice rather than the political and social concepts common in contemporary art in Sri Lanka today.
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GAYAN pRAGEETH, 2012, Change of tension, pencil on paper, 29cm x 29cm
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GAYAN pRAGEETH, 2012, Untitled II, Acrylic on canvas, 30cm x 30cm
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JACOB pRINGIERS
Jacob pringiers is a creative nomad moving between inter-disciplinary professions, utilizing the most sophisticated computer technologies to translate his ideas into three-dimensional forms, sculpting the digital plasma into volumes using precise 3D mathematics. His sculptures are the result of years of perfecting scale, proportion and dimension. These digital sculptures pay homage to the modernist monochrome and their emphasis on purity and perception, enacted in virtual three- dimensional space.
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JACOB pRINGIERS, 2011, Dart l, Limited Edition Offset Printed on 120 GSM Conqueror Paper, 58cm x 43cm
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JAGATH WEERASINGHE
Born in 1954 in Sri Lanka Jagath Weerasinghe obtained his BFA with Honors in painting from the University of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka and his mFA in painting from the American University in Washington DC. Weerasinghe is an artist, an archeologist and intellectual. He also acts as mentor to many emerging artists belonging to his collective Theertha. His solo exhibitions have been staged in Singapore, and Sri Lanka and Weerasinghe has participated in shows in the UK, Austria, the philippines, Sweden, Sri Lanka and Japan.
Weerasinghe’s art practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. Weerasinghe was also the inspiration behind the Colombo Art Biennale that staged it’s second run in 2012. Weerasinghe’s work focuses on the social and political changes in the Sri Lanka throughout his adolescence to adulthood.
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JAGATH WEERASINGHE, 2009, Shiva XVI, Acrylic on Canvas, 64cm x 51cm
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JAGATH WEERASINGHE, 2009, Shiva XVII, Acrylic on Canvas, 64cm x 51cm
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KINGSLEY GUNATILLAKE
Born in 1951 in Kandy, Sri Lanka, Kingsley Gunatillake is an integral part of our island’s growing contemporary art scene. After completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka, he went on to follow a course in Environmental Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Along with many of his fellow generation, Gunatillake lectured at the University of Kelaniya and the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts, in Sri Lanka. Gunatillake has held solo exhibitions of his work in Sri Lanka, India, the philippines and the UK.
Gunatillake has in recent years built a strong connection with Japan and this has had a strong influence on his ink on paper works. A senior abstract artist his works have always included a strong contrast of colour, while his medium moves from painting, to drawing to installation, his subject is often that of representation of the social and culture changes in Sri Lanka in the past and present.
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KINGSLEY GUNATILLAKE, 2009, Untitled II, Acrylic on paper, 80cm x 55cm
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mIKA TENNEKOON
Born in Sri Lanka in 1985, mika Tennekoon completed her HND in Visual Communication at the Academy of Design in Sri Lanka. Tennekoon will stage her first solo exhibition at SFG in November 2012. She has participated in group shows in both Colombo and Galle.
Tennekoon presented her work as an illustrator at pecha Kucha in 2011. The simple translation of day-to-day and emotional events into beautifully constructed illustrations drew SFG to work with her again a few months later on paper Canvas, a limited edition poster show. Tennekoon has been involved in projects such as the Secret Garden party and Whale of a time in the UK. Locally she has coordinated Galle Literary Festival workshops, been involved in Colombo Fashion Week and now belongs to a collective named COCA (Collective of Contemporary Artists). Tennekoon also works with multiple mediums such as photography, digital sketches and installation.
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mIKA TENNEKOON, 2011, Absentia, Limited Edition Offset Printed on 120 GSM Conqueror Paper, 58cm x 43cm
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mIKA TENNEKOON, 2012, Diamonds, Ink on paper, 32cm x 20cm
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NADIA HAJI OmAR
Born in 1985 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Nadia Haji Omar is a young Sri Lankan artists emerging fast and strong. Based in New York, Haji Omar completed her Bachelor of Arts at the Bard College in New York. Haji Omar has held solo exhibitions in Colombo and New York and participated in group shows in Sri Lanka, USA, and UK.
Haji Omar’s works are refreshingly direct, no-nonsense personal depictions of experiences, thoughts, and emotions. There is nothing light or heavy about these abstract works on paper; on the contrary the works have a visual appeal to which the artist’s explanation creates a self-realisation. The ‘artist’s struggle’ is perhaps more evident in Haji Omar’s work, yet the transparency of her self is the strength with which we hope to see many more young women artists progress locally.
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NADIA HAJI OmAR, 2010, Bounce 1-3, mixed media on paper, 28cm x 38cm
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NADIA HAJI OmAR, 2010, Bounce 3-3, mixed media on paper, 38cm x 28cm
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pALA pOTHUpITIYE
Born in 1972 in matara, Sri Lanka, pala pothupitiye hails from the Sri Lankan dancing caste and is a trained traditional Sri Lankan dancer. His education began with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka followed by courses in jewelry design, sewing techniques and craft and metal work at the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore pakistan. pothupitiye has held three solo shows in Sri Lanka and participated in group shows in Singapore, Australia, Japan, and Sweden.
pothupitiye’s early work focuses on the artists own identity crisis as an artist cum dancer and later evolved with a more political focus following his work as a member of the Theertha International Artists Collective in Sri Lanka. Still a member of the collective to-date, pothupitiye has begun mentoring artists in the North of Sri Lanka, specifically Jaffna; an experience that has an extreme influence on his ink and acrylic on canvas series, titled Katugaha and mythical Landscapes. pothupitiye’s portfolio consists of drawings, painting on paper, metal and fibreglass sculpture, embroidery and painting on canvas.
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pALA pOTHUpITIYE, 2010, Katugaha + Mythical Landscapes I, mixed media on Canvas, 81cm x 56cm
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pALA pOTHUpITIYE, 2010, Katugaha + Mythical Landscapes XV, mixed media on Canvas, 90cm x 61cm
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pRAGEETH mANOHANSA
Born in 1976, Gampaha, Sri Lanka, prageeth manohansa grew up watching his father reassemble old cars. His education in art began in 1997 in Benares where he completed a course in painting and sculpture followed by a Bachelor of Sculpture at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka. manohansa has staged solo exhibitions in Sri Lanka, the maldives and will present an exhibition of sculpture in Singapore in November 2012.
manohansa’s primary medium is scrap metal sculpture and his practice includes charcoal and pencil drawings, installation and most recently acrylic on canvas works.
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pRAGEETH mANOHANSA, 2011, Deer, Scrap metal and Chrome, 140cm x 145cm x 52cm
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pRAGEETH mANOHANSA, 2012, Characters, Scrap metal, 88cm x 23cm x 25cm
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pRAGEETH mANOHANSA,2011, Ganesh VI, Charcoal on paper, 93cm x 75cm
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ROHAN AmARASINGHE
Born in Sri Lanka in 1953, Rohan Amarasinghe presented his work at SFG in march 2012. Amarasinghe is a self-taught artist who has veered away from collectives and movements throughout his career. He disclaims nationalism and activism as traits and prefers to be admired for his skill and for the distinct themes of his work.
His series of acrylic on canvas works discuss life and death, hydraulic heritage and ancestry. The canvases carry symbols contrasting these themes thereby confronting our history both geographically and spiritually.
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ROHAN AmARASINGHE, 2012, Untitled II, Acrylic on canvas, 92cm x 92cm
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ROHAN AmARASINGHE, 2012, Untitled VI, Acrylic on canvas, 76cm x 76cm
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RUWAN pRASANNA
Born in 1980 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Ruwan prasanna has consistently exhibited his work at the Kala pola and the Exhibitions of Young Contemporaries held annually in Sri Lanka. In 2010 prasanna staged his first solo show and has since developed a following of local and international corporate and private collectors.
Prasanna’s abstract colour canvases draw inspiration from birds in flight and contrast colours from various species of Sri Lankan birds; a body of work titled Unknown Bird.
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RUWAN pRASANNA, 2011, Unknown Bird, Acrylic on Canvas, 62cm x 62cm
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RUWAN pRASANNA,2010, Unknow Bird, Acrylic on Canvas, 138cm x 184cm
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SAmUEL NIRUBAN p413
Niruban aka p413 started doodling seriously around late 2007. He began working in pop up spaces in 2011 after which he presented his work at the first Pecha Kucha Colombo. P413 worked on installation pieces for the Electric peacock Festival and the current public wall space for SFG features his largest work to-date.
P413 is heavily influenced by designer toys , collectibles, Street Art, Shepard Fairey, Marko Djurdjevic, graphic novels and uber cool fashion photography. He has a simple engine that drives him in everything he does; p413: “For I can do all things through Him, who gives me strength”
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SAmUEL NIRUBAN, 2011, Untitled, Limited Edition Offset Printed on 120 GSM Conqueror Paper, 58cm x 43cm
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SANJEEWA KUmARA
Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1971 Sanjeewa Kumara is one of Sri Lanka’s most sought after established artists. Kumara obtained his BFA at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka followed by a Diploma in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and a masters of Fine Arts at the Dutch Art Institute in the Netherlands. Kumara stages annual solo shows in Sri Lanka and has also exhibited in the Netherlands. Kumara has participated in group shows in Sri Lanka, the maldives, Australia, Austria and Germany.
Kumara’s art practice involves oil on canvas and his works are renowned for their unusual shapes. The naiveté that his paintings exude are in fact a disguise for heavier historical and political contexts Kumara’s canvases are bright and colourful, and present the viewer with fun and humour.
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SANJEEWA KUmARA, 2011, Echoing, oil on canvas, 100cm x 140cm
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SASKIA pINTELON
Born in 1945, in Belgium, Saskia pintelon moved to Sri Lanka in 1982 after completing her education at the Institute of Visual Arts in Saint Lucas Gent. Between 1968 and 1972 she was a professor of art at the same as well as the Academy of Art Kortrijk. pintelon began exhibiting her work in Belgium, France, Sri Lanka, Italy, India and most recently Singapore.
The focus of Pintelon’s work was influenced strongly by Sri Lankan culture in the 1980s and consisted of large mixed media works on paper. In the late 2000s pintelon began a series of work presenting Sri Lankan faces that was published in a book by Clam, titled ‘The Book of Faces’. She continues with this series to-date but has recently shifted to larger mixed media works on canvas and cotton canvas.
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SASKIA pINTELON, 2011, Quest for Dignity, mixed media on canvas, 159cm x 149cm
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SASKIA pINTELON, 2011, There is a Reason for Everything, mixed media on canvas, 223cm x 159cm
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SUJEEWA KUmARI
Born in 1971 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sujeewa Kumari is today one of Sri Lanka’s strongest young female artists. After completing her Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka, she moved to the Netherlands to complete a Diploma at the Aki Academy of Fine Art. Thereafter she completed her masters in Fine Arts at the Dutch Art Institute in the Netherlands.
Kumari has held solo exhibitions in the UK, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka and participated in group shows in the UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, China and Sri Lanka. Her primary body of work consists of mixed media drawings on paper as well as oil and acrylic on canvas works. The subject of her work is based on the artist’s personal experiences of motherhood, her research into postcolonial costumes of Sri Lanka and contrasting techniques that emphasize each concept. Kumari continues to have a nonchalant attitude to describing her work. There is something that occurs between the work and it’s viewer that she refuses to allow an explanation to destroy, this in itself is the essence of her work; mystery.
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SUJEEWA KUmARI, 2007, Untitled, mix media on paper, 30cm x 40cm
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SUJEEWA KUmARI, 2008, Little Woman, mix media on paper, 50cm x 40cm
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SUJEEWA KUmARI, 2010, She, mix media on paper, 40cm x30cm
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T. SHANAATHANAN
Born in 1969, in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan is Sri Lanka’s foremost artist hailing from the North of the Island. Shanaathanan completed his BFA and mFA in painting at the University of Delhi after which he returned to New Delhi eleven years later to complete his phD at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Shanaathanan has held solo shows in Sri Lanka and the UK and participated in group shows in Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, India, Austria, the UK and France.
In 2011 Shanaathanan collaborated with curator Sharmini pereira on a book titled ‘The Incomplete Thombu’. The book contains a series of 80 of the artists’ drawings covered by an architectural drawing and backed by a story of those who lost their homes in the North due to the war. The book that in itself is visually captivating, resembling an old government file and bound using the old archival process, stands as the only printed documentation of such stories in post-war Sri Lanka. Shanaathanan’s artistic practice includes work on paper and installation and the artist focuses his practice on the strife of those residing in the North of the island.
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T. SHANAATHANAN, 2011, Mismatches, mixed media on paper, 22cm X 18cm.
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T. SHANAATHANAN, 2011, Mismatches IV, mixed media on paper, 22cm X 18cm
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VAJIRA GUNAWARDENE
Born in Sri Lanka in 1971 Vajira Gunawardena completed a Diploma in product Design before going on to receive a BFA from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Sri Lanka. Gunawardena has held solo shows in Sri Lanka consistently since 2001 and has participated in group shows in Sri Lanka, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Cuba and Bangladesh.
Self-portraits and colour dominate Vajira Gunawardena’s latest works. Various heads, skulls and faces within the silhouette of a larger head and combined to encompass memories visually. In Gunawardena’s earlier works he painted scenes from daily life and television with a focus on commercialism and consumerism. His latter works have begun to present more of the artists self, in compositions of bright abstract canvases, featuring the face in many forms and colours. Gunawardena’s work connects with the viewer in a lighter, direct manner. There are no hidden meanings, just pure, bright fun.
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VAJIRA GUNAWARDENA, 2010, Nowhere to Run, Oil on canvas, 135cm x 125cm
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VAJIRA GUNAWARDENA. 2006, Window shopping, oil on canvas, 93cm x 86cm
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S A S K I A F E R N A N D O
G A L L E R Y61 Dharmapala mawatha, Colombo 7. Sri Lanka
Tel : +94 (11)7429010www.saskiafernandogallery.com