Sri Lankan Art Exhibition in Sweden

As a further development of the Swedish- Sri Lankan artists’ collaboration, an exhibition of contemporary Sri Lankan art consisting of artworks by  ten artists was held at the Millesgarden Museum gallery in Sweden from 9th April to 25th May 2005. It was a project undertaken with the partnership of Millesgarden, a museum dedicated to artist Carl Milles’ work in Lidingo, Sweden. The exhibition was curated by the museum’s chief curator William Wareing.


 

Six  Degrees of Separation : Chaos, Congruence and Collaboration

Expressions of Six Sri Lankan Artists: Art of Sarath Kumarasiri/ Pradeep Chandrasiri/ Koralegedera Pushpakumara/ Anura Krishantha/ Pala Pothupitiya/ Thisath Thoradeniya.

  ‘Six  Degrees of Separation : Chaos, Congruence and Collaboration’ is a exhibition held simultaneous in five south Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) as part of Network activity they have been engaging in during the last 5 years. The exhibition will be held in September 2008.  Contemporary artists featured in the exhibition   in the Sri  Lankan component at Red Dot Gallery refer to   the  art and the artists of the 90s  Trend.  While Sarath Kumarasiri, Pradeep Chandrasiri and Koralegedera Pushpakumara are closer to the initial nuances, visual representations and thematics of the 90s Trend , Anura Krishantha, Pala Pothupitiya and Thisath Thoradeniya represent the new generation of artists whose work have evolved to take the same trend as a point of departure. The latter belongs to the same generation of artists whose repertoire of visual language, the conceptual formulations and artist personas had the  opportunity to negotiate and absorb  globalized images, international art trends and art market possibilities in addition to the local cultural and political dynamics.

The art of the 1990s emerged in the context of a chaotic and complex socio-political situation marked with a 20 year civil war, unplanned economic maneuvers, the resultant youth frustrations and violence. During the last decade and a half, as a reaction to such an environment, a socially engaging and politically vocal visual art practice with its own aesthetic vocabulary  that broke all possible conventions in art making emerged in Sri Lanka, which is now popularly referred to as the 90s Trend.      The last decade also saw many artists finding opportunities to explore art exchange situations and conduits to connect with international art communities.  Globalization and its allure, IT technology and its advantages, and the high frequency of information access allowed artists to think beyond the local art community and locally specific art expressions.  At present, nearly 18 years after the epistemic break initiated by the 90s Trend, one could see younger artists taking these established possibilities into other dimensions. What is seen now is this aesthetic vocabulary being developed into more subtle aesthetic formats by the younger artists discussing micro themes at a deeper level, investigating intimate and highly personal experiences.

The six artists represented here have been part of the network of artists who have been advantaged by experiences of international art exchange and whose work reflect the changes of contemporary art trends from the 90s up to the present.

Artful Resistance