Alex back with a burst of colour with “Parallel Possibility”
Pix by Nilan Maligaspe
It’s impossible to separate colour from Alex Stewart. Since November 18, his flamboyantly colourful paintings have made a home of the stark white walls of the Barefoot Gallery. When we meet Alex, he naturally gravitates toward a table backed by a wall which is a riot of colour with vintage signboards and number plates cutting an interesting contrast to the unassumingly placid man seated in front.
Glancing through his latest collection, it’s hard to imagine its creator is one with a visitor’s perspective of Sri Lanka. Rich pinks and exotic blues burst through the canvas in the many layers that create an almost 3D effect if you look close enough. In each painting a sly spider limbed “Andaré” floats, sometime crawls in the background. His face almost covered, you can’t mirror his gaze but you know he has a crafty trick up his tentacle arms as he peeps at the other figures through feathery garlands.
Alex’s love for Sri Lankan art, culture, the country itself is all too evident. The self-taught painter first visited the country back in 1993, having been invited by Dominic Sansoni while in London to showcase his work at Barefoot. Ever since, he calls Sri Lanka “my spiritual home”, making several visits over the last twenty three with this being his second stay in 2016. It’s a space that allows Alex the freedom he craves, a freedom that reflects in his whimsical, surrealist paintings.
The self-taught painter, DJ and illustrator began his career first as a hobby “but it just happened” he explains. His art has been showcased in London, New York and India but the soft spoken Alex finds himself regularly exhibiting his work in Sri Lanka, even taking time off once to work in his studio in Trincomalee.
Being self-taught, he feels, is more an advantage than a handicap. “I find an artist and read about them,” he says. His avid interest in Sri Lankan history and Persian art are evident in his eastern gothic style of painting. The only goal any artist would strive is to offer a universal story.
His current exhibition “A Parallel Possibility” does just that – the paintings form a continuing story, feeding each other as you walk along the room. The viewer becomes a tourist, following the maidens in printed saris, lovers and the ever-present fool over rivers, around lotuses and floating tuktuks.
“Parallel Possibility” an exhibition of paintings by Alex Stewart ends today December 4 at the Barefoot Gallery.
Alex Stewart