Carving out his own visual space
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Arjuna Gunarathne’s new exhibition Outline that opened on May 21 at the Saskia Fernando Gallery presents a fantastical imagination through which the artist essays the loneliness and alienation of the migrant experience while finding comfort in the quiet existence he has carved out for himself and his family.
Arjuna Gunarathne
Arjuna blends eastern and western traditions to create a unique visual language. This latest series of works finds him exploring the potential of the pigment pen, watercolour and crayon to mimic a wondrous child-like engagement while continuing to integrate and interpret the various schools of visual art practices that he has trained in.
Currently based in London, Arjuna was educated in the miniature tradition at Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan. In 2018, he attended the Drawing Year Postgraduate programme at the Royal Drawing School in London.
His work is part of the Royal Art Collection in the UK and has been alongside fellow graduates of the Royal Drawing School in celebration of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Christie’s in London. He has held solo exhibitions in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. He has been featured in The A-Z of Conflict and exhibited at the Museum of Ethnology in Austria and the fourth Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh. In 2022, his exhibition Within Boundaries was at the Saskia Fernando Gallery.
The universe the artist creates for himself in Outline is filled with euphoria and magic. A cascade of colours and motifs emerge within his artworks, representing vibrant townscapes and luscious tropics flowing from the artist’s psyche as he attempts to beautify his existence. This exercise is made all the more meaningful by the warmth and comfort he finds in his close-knit family, brought closer together in the artist’s alien surroundings by an invisible thread of connection in his compositions.
Outline will run until June 18 at the Saskia Fernando Gallery, 41 Horton Place, Colombo 07.
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