Interested in contemporary art? An exhibition by artist Vajira Gunawardene is on at the Paradise Gallery.
Vajira, 37, has been a professional painter for nine years and has had five solo exhibitions and several group exhibitions not only in Sri Lanka but also in Austria, the Netherlands and Bangladesh.
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| Vajira |
“I usually get positive feedback from my audience and clientele although they sometimes ask me why I painted a certain painting in a certain way as they don’t always get it,” says Vajira who studied at the College of Fine Arts and also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya.
He uses “brilliant colour along with motifs that develop or engender a deep psychological meaning based on social crisis”. Not limiting himself to themes such as war or peace, he draws inspiration from everyday life and emotions and attempts to delve into the hidden rather than the obvious.
In each painting he asks himself, “Who am I?’, “What is this?”, “What am I really seeing?” and paints according to his perception and intuition. He sometimes takes up to nine months to complete a painting and during that time if his perceptions change, he starts all over again.
“In an ongoing attempt to understand how colour and shapes are seen by the conscious and subconscious minds, I add tension. The tension (placement) between shapes and colour in a composition is important to all my pieces, no matter in what medium I choose to work,” says Vajira.
His vibrant paintings can be viewed at the Paradise Gallery from 10 a.m. to midnight daily till July 22.
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