Sanjeewa Kumara’s exhibition features a fusion of lush, sensual imagery, and the collision between Western pop culture and the Sri Lanka’s post colonial legacy.
Kumara states, “Today painting is recognised as a traditional media. But painting still has specific capacities of its own to discover and exploit. But ‘picture’ implies space one goes into. I am moving more and more in the direction that I don’t want to refer to my images as paintings. I myself suggest the term ‘picture’. Pictures are evoking imaginary spheres and they go beyond amusement or exotic. The uncanny – the fantastic – the marvellous – the hesitation – the supernatural and the Uncertainty is very important to my work”.
He aims to synchronise diverse histori- cal elements into a visual pastiche, creating a unique visual language that he terms ‘non western western art’. He traces his artistic influence to cave painters, saying, “I love the sense that I’m doing the same thing that people have always done.” His pictures re-contextualise traditional myths and stories through vibrant colours and ambiguous narratives and new legends are created against bold acid-coloured backdrops and kaleidoscopic motifs.
Sanjeewa Kumara’s creative works will be on display at the Paradise Road Gallery.