the encounter
DESCRIPTION
SANJEEWA KUMARA | DECEMBER 2015TRANSCRIPT
SANJEEWA KUMARA
THE ENCOUNTER
SANJEEWA KUMARA
17 DECEMBER 2015 - 14 JANUARY 2016
I like to work with the traditional medium of oil paints. I think it might be my interest in art history and my feeling that I wanted to be part of a line of development of man - from the cave painters 35,000 years ago to the present, people paint. Essentially, we use the same tools - a stick with some hair on the end of it and minerals from the earth mixed with some oil. I love that sense that I am doing the same thing that people have always done. Of course, as a medium, oil painting is characteristically slow. However I try to react fast. I have a rather direct and fast relationship and attitude towards pictures. What is special about painting pictures is that I can lie with it endlessly. There are no boundaries. Other mediums such as photography and cinema, still carry with them traces of authentic realty. Painting does not start from reality, and that makes it unique.
Today painting is recognized as a traditional media. But painting still has specific capacities of its own to discover and exploit. An abstract painting or abstract expressionistic painting is rarely a picture; an abstract painting is a painting because it dwells primarily on the material and surface. But ‘picture’ implies a space one goes into. I am moving more and more in the direction of not referring to my images as paintings. I myself suggest the term ‘picture’. This word has a more general meaning. But with its reference to depiction it is very close to ideas of representation. 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 are very important in my work. The language of my ‘pictures’ is where (y)our desire is placed. My art is predominantly an art of surprise. It is self-protest against conceptual and minimal art.
SANJEEWA KUMARANOVEMBER 2015
Free Will I, 2015, Oil on canvas, 38 x 59cm, LKR 45,000
On The Edge II, 2015, Oil on canvas, 60 x 45 cm, LKR 55,000
At Mid Night Tree Of Life Started To Fly 1 III, 2015, Oil on canvas, 80 x 60cm, LKR 65,000
Beyond Wishful Thinking IV, 2015, Oil on canvas, 80 x 60cm, LKR 85,000
Seen Stars V, 2015, Oil on canvas, 90 x 70cm, LKR 85,000
A Perfect World VI, 2015, Oil on canvas, 60 x 90cm, LKR 80,000
The Rainbow Tree And Rainbow Joy VII, 2015, Oil on canvas,134x134cm, LKR 350,000
Joy Of Infinity VIII, 2015, Oil on canvas, 146 x 108cm, LKR 280,000
The Joy Of An Uncanny Personality 1 IX, 2015, Oil on canvas, 146 x 108cm, LKR 280,000
Uncanny Personality X, 2015, Oil on canvas 146 x 108cm, LKR 240,000
Uncanny Personality Moving To Comfort Zone XI, 2015,Oil on canvas, 146 x 108cm , LKR 250,000
The Encounter XII, 2015, Oil on canvas, 146 x 108cm, LKR 240,000
Out Of This World XIII, 2015,Oil on canvas, 40 x 30cm , LKR 25,000
Where There Is XIV, 2015, Oil on canvas, 80 x 100cm, LKR 85,000
The Aliens Emerge XV, 2015,Oil on canvas, 150 x 110cm , LKR 250,000
The Joy Of An Uncanny Personality 2 XVI, 2015, Oil on canvas, 150 x 110cm, LKR 250,000
At Mid Night Tree Of Life Started To Fly 2 XVII, 2015,Oil on canvas, 92 x 123cm , LKR 150,000
Tree Of Life XVIII, 2015, Oil on canvas, 100 x 215cm, LKR 300,000
SANJEEWA KUMARA b. 1971
Education2003 Masters of Fine Arts, Dutch Art Institute, The Netherlands2001 Diploma [Painting], AKI Academy of Fine Arts, The Netherlands1999 Bachelor of Fine Arts [painting], Institute of Aesthetic studies in Colombo, University of Kalaniya, Sri Lanka
Solo Exhibitions (Selected)2014 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2013 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2011 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2010 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2009 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2008 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2007 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2006 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2005 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2004 Head office in Prins Claus Fund in The Hague, Netherlands 2004 Villa De Bank in Enschede, The Netherlands2003 Paradise Road Galleries in Colombo, Sri Lanka2003 Gallery Art Korner in The Hague, Netherlands
Group Exhibitions2014 Garden of Eden, exhibition, Malaysia 2014 ‘India –Sri Lanka Artist week’ art exhibition, Taj Samudra Hotel, Sri Lanka2011 Contemporary Art from Sri Lanka, Asia House, London.U.K.2009 Colombo Art Biennale ,Colombo, Sri Lanka2008 ARTFUL RESISTANCE Crisis and Creativity in Sri Lanka Museum of Ethnology Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Austria2008 ‘Expressions of Independence’, The Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France
Work Shops and Residence 2010 SAARC Artist Camp ,Pondicherry. India,2004 Triangle Artists Workshop in NewYork, U.S A.2003 7 th International Artist Camp, The Village Hotel in Habarana, Sri Lanka.2002 ‘ Visva Karma’, Kulture forum in Rheine , Germany.1998 2nd International Artist Camp, The Village Hotel in Habarana, Sri Lanka. Grants/Awards (selected)2015 Finalist The Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong2001 Grant for study abroad, The President’s Fund Sri Lanka2000 Local grant, The Netherlands Embassy, Sri Lanka1999 Grant for travel to Netherlands, Prins Claus Fund, The Netherlands
