Sunday Times 2
Seminal exhibition of Sri Lankan heritage art opens in Los Angeles
View(s):The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recently opened an exhibition titled, ‘The Jewelled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka’ – the first comprehensive survey of Sri Lankan art organised by a U.S. museum. Drawn in part from LACMA’s collection of Sri Lankan art, and including numerous domestic and international loans, the exhibition presents some 240 works addressing nearly two millennia of Sri Lankan history.
Left to right: Exhibition Designers Ravi Gunewardena and Frank Escher; Consul General Swarna Gunaratne; Curator Dr. Thushara Bindu Gude; Deputy Consul Asoka Godawita, Curator Dr. Robert L. Brown; and LACMA Director Michael Govan.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Robert L. Brown and Dr. Tushara Bindu Gude, of LACMA’s South and Southeast Asian Art Department, and is designed by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Escher GuneWardena Architecture, a partnership of Sri Lankan born Ravi Gunewardena and Swiss architect Frank Escher.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on a visit to the US met with the curators and LACMA Director Michael Govan and discussed this exhibition initially with them as part of a wider Sri Lanka 70th Anniversary of Independence promotion. LACMA obliged by moving forward the exhibition by a year to open in 2018.