'The Brutality Within' by Koralegedara Pushpakumara

Boldly and ruthlessly calling out the elephant in the room, “The Brutality Within” by Koralegedara Pushpakumara features works that cut into the writhing underbelly of trauma beneath the experiences of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Interplaying material and metaphor in this collection of striking abstract works, Pushpakumara compellingly used 2 x 2 poles as a motif for brutalization, drawing from the experiences of violence between civilians and the state that he witnessed during the war. Unflinchingly, through his works he forces audiences to confront the recent past of our nation, and linger in the effects of its suffering that can stll be felt within the foundations of our society today. Echoing the ethos of the 90s Trend art movement of which he rose to prominence from, Pushpakumara does not shy away from reminding the public of the darkness in our nation’s past, delving into the suffering that eclipsed the nation amidst the battering years of the war. Pushpakumara’s exhibition “The Brutality Within” is still open for viewing at The Fort Printers, alongside a select exhibitions from the Art Trail by ARTRA which were part of the Galle Literary Festival earlier this month.

Turning the Galle Fort into a traversible gallery of art, the array of contemporary artworks that were on display during the Art Trail are still open for public viewing. Azara Jaleel, Editor-in-Chief of ARTRA Magazine and Curator of Art Trail, speaking on the importance of curating revolving spaces for Sri Lankan contemporary works said: “To curate exhibitions of this nature, we are working on revolving spaces. Last year we ventured on an effort to transform the Galle Fort into an art gallery of assortments, where we worked with the people, the community, and hotels where they share these narratives alongside us. It has larger engagement, it goes around the countryside, and it is fearless in its way of talking about taboo topics.” 

'Body...is' by Kesara Ratnavibhushana and French Cowboy

The range of exhibitions curated for the Art Trail reflected the breadth and depth of the ever-evolving landscape of Sri Lanka’s contemporary art scene. Alongside the works of established Sri Lankan artists like Pushpakumara, the poignant abstract works of emerging Sri Lankan artist K. Mathiskumar are currently available for viewing at The Charleston, Galle Fort. Exemplifying the breadth of Sri Lanka’s emerging contemporary art scene, his exhibition “Riches and Ruin” delved into the realm of mixed media, as the artist utilized discarded polybags, fabric scraps and materials sourced from the slums of Lucknow, India. Challenging society’s tendency to perceive the impoverished as living lives of desperation and pain, Mathiskumar sourced from his childhood in the East of Sri Lanka and observations of the slums in Lucknow in this collection to emphasize the beauty of communal bonds and the resilience of joy even through hardship. To glimpse a range of emerging contemporary Sri Lankan art, an array of works by ARTRAs Emerging Artists | Best of 2020 - 2023 can be viewed at the Galle Fort Hotel.

'Galle Fort in the Contemporary' by Streets of Colombo Photography Collective

Similarly, The Merchant in the Galle Fort will continue to host the stunning photography exhibitions “Body is…” and “Galle Fort in the Contemporary” by Kesara Ratnavibhushana in collaboration with French Cowboy and The Streets of Colombo Photography Collective respectively. With a strong narrative of the human body, Kesara Ratnavibhushana and French photography duo French Cowboy’s (Mia MacFarlane and Julien Crouigneau) exhibition “Body is…” sought to redefine perceptions of culture, identity and their significance in queer lives. Their curated selection of photography in this exhibition potently challenged the human body and its dynamism amidst the surrounding environment, portraying figures swathed in Selyn textile against an array of enigmatic settings, whilst celebrating the lushness and wonder of Sri Lanka’s natural landscapes. In contrast, the street photography of “Galle Fort in the Contemporary” captures the dynamism of an urban setting such as the Galle Fort. Through a rich selection of photographs by the Streets of Colombo Photography Collective, that capture the cultural iconography and symbols scattered throughout the urban landscape of the Fort, this exhibition of works highlight the historicity of the surrounding architecture, and the beating pulse of contemporary life in the Fort.

'Into the Mystique' by Rajani Serasinghe

These exhibits are a glimpse into the transformation the Galle Fort underwent from 6th February to 9th February, when Art Trail by ARTRA, Galle Literary Festival once again transformed the Fort into a traversible art gallery for 4 festive-filled days. The 16 segments within the dynamic programme reflected the exciting nuance of Sri Lanka’s contemporary art scene, featuring artists both local and international, emerging and established through a series of exhibitions alongside interactive segments.

Displayed during the festival was the stunning mosiac works of ARTRA’s Emerging Artist | Best of 2024, Rajani Serasinghe in her exhibition “Into The Mystique” which explored the lush grandoisity of Sri Lanka’s landscapes and wildlife in a romantic lens. Her works of glass, which were displayed at the Galle Fort Hotel in Galle evoked the mystical quality of Sri Lanka’s natural environment. In stark contrast, “The Tree Left Standing” by Anushka Wijesinha and Nishan Perera was an exhibition of nature photography that approached Sri Lanka’s natural environment from an economic and scientific perspective. Through their selection of nature and marine photography which were displayed at the Heritage Hotel, their works encouraged audiences to confront humanity’s relationship with the wild, and the value we place upon nature as a resource. 

Meet the Artist segment with Ali Kazim

Of the interactive segments included in the programme, a highlight was the Meet the Artist segments with the featured artists of ARTRA Magazine’s latest edition. Representing artistry across the South Asian region, the latest edition features Ali Kazim from Pakistan, Tayeba Begum Lipi from Bangladesh and Anoli Perera from Sri Lanka. Ali Kazim’s artistic practice is concerned with watercolour portraiture that tie deeply with Pakistan’s history and contemporary cultures, and his works are part of global collections such as the Tate Modern and the Ashmolean Museum. Tayeba Begum Lipi through her practice creates razor-blade sculptures of feminine objects, of which her works have been featured in public collections such as the Guggenheim Museum NYC and the Tate Modern, tackling themes such as gender performativity and the female body. Anoli Perera is a reputed contemporary artist who pioneered the 90’s Trend art movement alongside Koralegedara Pushpakumara, revolutionizing the landscape of Sri Lanka’s art scene in the 1990s with her bold feminist works. Her textiles deal poignantly with themes of cultural memory, gender and post-coloniality. Through the Meet the Artist segments during the Art Trail, they were able to provide rare and eye-opening context and create dialogue with enthusiastic audiences about their respective artistic practices, ethos and works. 

Meet the Artist segment with Tayeba Lipi

Meet the Artist segment with Anoli Perera

Jagath Weerasinghe, during the Meet the Artist segment with Anoli Perera on 9th February praised the curatorial angle of the latest edition of ARTRA Magazine, noting: “South Asian artists had a resistance to the global sentiment of contemporary art that rejected the human body…Contemporary art on a global level became accomplices to a particular way of thinking which sought to cleanse human emotions from artistic circles, an extreme which is represented by the human figure. Which is why I’m glad these three artists (Ali, Anoli and Tayeba) were selected exactly for that matter, for their insistence for telling the predicaments of being human and of contemporary society through the human body, only because it is the body that suffers in the end.” 

Jagath Weerasinghe

ARTRA Magazine’s South Asian Contemporary Art Edition 68 launched in all grandeur on Friday, Feb 7th at Radisson Collection Resort, Galle amidst a gathering of artists and authors. This edition endeavours to engage the seminal works of Kazim, Lipi and Perera in dialogue with each other as they explore themes of the human body, gender performativity and cultural memory across the contemporary contexts of their regions. For your copy of ARTRA Magazine’s South Asian Contemporary Art Edition E68, call +94 77 570 1891. 

Select exhibitions from the Art Trail, Galle Literary Festival are currently open for viewing such as Pushpakumara’s “The Brutality Within”  at The Fort Printers. Kesara Ratnavibhushana and French Cowboy’s photography exhibition “Body is…” and Street of Colombo Photography Collective’s (SOC) exhibit  “Galle Fort in the Contemporary” is open for viewing at The Merchant. The works of emerging Sri Lankan artists such as K. Mathiskumar’s “Riches & Ruins” is open for viewing at The Charleston, and a selection of works by ARTRA’s Emerging Artists | Best of 2020 - 2023 can be viewed at the Galle Fort Hotel.