SRI LANKAN ARTISTS AT THE INDIA ART FAIR 2023
Jagath Weerasinghe, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Firi Rahman, Hema Shironi, Muvindu Binoy
Jagath Weerasinghe, Thousand Shivas 2020, represented by Saskia Fernando Gallery
The India Art Fair (IAF) will be held from 9th to 12th February 2023 in the NSIC grounds, Okhla Industrial Area in New Delhi, India. IAF is India’s flagship art event which brings together galleries and institutions, private foundations, arts charities, artist collectives, national museums, cultural events, and festivals. The art fair enables local and international audiences to engage in innovative ways with both cultural history and development within the South Asian region. Saskia Fernando Gallery will be showcasing the works of leading contemporary Sri Lankan artists Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Jagath Weerasinghe, Firi Rahman, Hema Shironi, and Muvindu Binoy at the fair.
Over the last two decades, Saskia Fernando Gallery has furthered the conversation on Sri Lankan contemporary art in the region as well as globally, through continued support to local art and representation at international art events. As the only Sri Lankan gallery attending IAF 2023, Saskia Fernando Gallery will bring together works ranging from textile, embroidery, digital collages, drawings, paintings and book art reflecting the dialogues and developments in visual language in the island, both past and ongoing.
Chandraguptha Thenuawara, Enslaved III 2022, represented by Saskia Fernando Gallery
Firi Rahman, Enclosure VII 2022, represented by Saskia Fernando Gallery
The gallery will present works by five artists currently at the forefront of Sri Lankan contemporary art. Hema Shironi’s work is driven by the nostalgia of the numerous places she has called home and how each community belonging to those places grapples with concerns of language, culture, memory through textile and embroidery. Firi Rahman’s work engages with issues endangering the island’s wildlife through brought to life through sombre and monochromatic style that are both intimate and sensitive. Muvindu Binoy’s digital collages explore the expectation of traditional values contradicted by modern-emancipated standards of the digital age. Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s interdisciplinary practice which draws from a repository of leitmotifs he has used over four decades are intertwined with the sociopolitical developments in Sri Lanka. The works of his contemporary, Jagath Weerasinghe confronts ideas of nation hood and identity.
Hema Shironi, Behind the Curtains 2020, represented by Saskia Fernando Gallery
