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| Kooii Artist Participation GalleArtTrail |
| Cora de Lang- (Buenos Aires) |
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Bio: Cora’s artwork shows a weaving pattern of her life, involving threads from various corners of the world, expressing thoughts and feelings lived and formulated in different languages.
Cora graduated from the Escuala Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina and has worked and lived in Germany, India, Nigeria, and Mexico. A truly international artist she has exhibited around the globe.
Link: http://www.coradelang.com/home.php
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| Mike Furniss |
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Thematic Background.
"My Swedish wife spent many of her younger years in columbo and always told
me stories about the people and places of Sri Lanka.
My first magical visit to the Island was on our wedding day several years
later at Helgas Folly in Kandy.
As soon as I arrived and saw myself for the first time, the places I had
been told about, I knew I had to capture my impressions.
I returned a year later armed with camera and sketchbook and travelled and
recorded.
On return to London I took all my sketches and findings and translated
them to the silkscreen medium."
About the artist.
Mike furniss trained as an illustrator and fine art printmaker at Harrow
School of Art and works in a diverse range of mediums; acrylic, ink,
woodcut and primarily silkscreen.
His silkscreen prints have been exhibited at the ICA and Whitworth galleries.
He has worked as a designer for large graphic, branding and interior
design projects for major clients in the UK and Europe.
He has directed advertising commercials and photo shoots.
He lives and works in West London.
Mike Furniss
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| Vajira Gunawardena |
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Bio: Vajira Gunawardena (Colombo, 1971) observes locally what is happening on a global scale: how mass consumerism is driving humanity into complete alienation. He translates how fulfillment of needs has transgressed into unsatisfactory fulfillment of wants.
Vajira hold a BFA degree from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He works and lives in Weliveriya. He has exhibited in Barefoot, Paradise Road, Alliance Francaise Colombo.
Vajira Gunawardena
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| Dumith Kulasekara |
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Dumith Kulasekara |
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| Menika VanderPoorten |
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Bio: Memory, personal histories, space, time, the transient, the fragmentary, the ephemeral and the mundane bits of life are the inspiration for artist Menika Vanderpoorten. She mainly works in photography, black & white and colour film but interested in ‘alternative processes’ her show will include a few ‘sun prints’ which are not lens-based, not replicable, and always original.
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| Sri Lankan Women artist Group: |
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Various works from women artist who participated in kOOii workshop in May 2008.
Video-art
Photography
Installations.
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| Kusal Gunasekara |
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Kusal’s interest in military symbols (bullets and boots) began after a visit to the North of the country. “Holes in buildings, craters across the landscape, bullets scattered everywhere.” While these are reminders of a cruel war, the rest of the country sees bullets or bullet cases as rare ornaments, sometimes to display in a living room. The same is true of the boot, an instrument of power in the North, becomes a fashion statement in the South and elsewhere. Kusal exposes the gaping holes in our moral values by turning the boot into an object of style, desire, and beauty. His work is as much an artistic response to a national crisis as an aesthetic commentary on footwear.
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| Sujeewa Kumari Weerasinghe |
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Sujeewah Kumari is one of the few female artists in this project. She has in recent years made a huge impact with her energy and style. Apart from her colorful dramatic paintings ( often compared to the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo), she works with video, digital photography and performance art. In her work she deals with notions of identity and the role of women in a post-colonial context. She merges cultural images to exemplify the tension between local and global.
She holds a BA from the Institute of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Kelaniya and an MA in fine arts from the Netherlands. She has exhibited in both countries.
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| RM Naeem- Pakistan |
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Bio: R.M. Naeem is assistant professor, National College of Arts, Lahore Pakistan. In 2003 was awarded the National Excellence Award at the 8th National Exhibition of Visual Arts, organized by Pakistan National Council of Arts, at Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan.
Solo shows: Islamabad 1993; Lahore 1997, Clifton Art gallery, Karachi, Pakistan 2006, Paradise Road Sri Lanka 2007 Group shows: NCA Lahore, 1995, 1996, 1997; 3 exhibitions Islamabad 1991-1993; 3 in Mirpurkhas 1979-1984. Group of Pakistani painters Xhinwa Museum, China in 2001, Pyeongtaek International Art Festival Korea , 2007 International Artist Biennale, Iran 2006, 12 th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh 2006, Thakti show, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Toronto, Canada. 2006 .
His paintings are the following collections: Bradford Museum of Fine Arts, UK, German Embassy Islamabad, Alhamra Arts Gallery Lahore.
RM Naeem
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Sampath Amunugama |
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Bio: BFA , Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Colombo. He has participated in exhibitions in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Korea. About his work: “ The experience of the impermanence, loneliness, and conflict of existence scares me. My paintings express the dreams of hope and reflect my inner conflicts”.
Sampath Amunugama
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| Sanjeewa Kumara |
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(1971) is visiting lecturer for visual art and art history at Kelaniya University in Sri Lanka. He prefers to call his work pictures rather than ‘paintings’. His six legged dancing elephants and other ambiguous animals and fantasy shapes appear from his desire to reveal the mystery of life.
“My art is Fun. I prefer to label my art as ‘non-western western art’.
because my art world reflects trans-cultural hybrid images. By mixing various popular and unpopular historical elements combining them as visual pastiche, I try to synchronize them into my own unique style".
Sanjeewa holds a arts MA from the Netherlands and had many solo and group exhibitions, inside and outside Sri Lanka.
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| Somapala Pothupitye Acharige |
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Bio: Member of Theertha Pala belongs to a traditional dancer-family from the South of Sri Lanka. In his works, he incorporates traditional design motifs and creates works that have a strongly traditional decorative appearance, using modern plastic materials and items. Conceptually, his work addresses the issues pertaining to identity and personality of individuals like him, who are caught in a social space that is defined by the anxieties of traditional life to modern transition.
He was nominated for the Singapore Signature Art Prize 2008 – see link
http://www.nhb.gov.sg/sam/signatureartprize/countries.html
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Mahen Chanmugan |
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"Mahen's art attempts to present the complex symbolism and iconography surrounding Lord Ganesh in a colourful, contemprary form.
His paintings reach back to the past, while looking forward, balancing the challenges between the spirit of modernism and the need to capture the essence of a traditional art form, undiluted."
Mahen Chanmugan
Pricelist Galle Arttrail 
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Modern Woven Art from Sri Lanka Designed by Tilak Samarawickrema
Woven by the weavers of Talagune Uda-Dumbara. |
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Tilak Samarawickrema is a Sri Lankan Architect with a multi facetted design background. From 1971 to 1983 he lived in Milan, Rome and New York. The tapestries designed by him are woven by the traditional weavers of Talagune Uda-Dumbara the oldest weaving village in Sri Lanka.
Two international museums Deutsches Textile Museum, Krefeld Germany and Norsk Form, Design and Architecture Museum Oslo have held personal exhibitions of his work. The MOMA design store in New York has carried his work for many years.
Tilak Samarawickrema
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| Saskia Pintelon |
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Mankind has always been a constant theme in the work of Saskia Pintelon. Using a combination of collage, drawing, painting, photography and text, she offers a frank look at the reality of a little known culture. Her work, which is incisive determined and brutal, brings out a strong element of poetry and sensuallity. Arranged marriage resonates throughout this work, reminding us instantly of the union between the artist and the country she now inhabits, representing a fusion of East and West.
Working on recycled paper, her palette includes sombre, earth colours, highlighted by occasional flashes of white. The artist focuses throughout on her subject's simplicity and truth.Her strokes are vibrant and distinct, her faces without exception display a wild and edgy expression. She previously worked in a more narrative and anecdotal style, using themes associated with humantiy, the cycle of life, birth, nature, motherhood - being in all its opacity and physical reality. In her current work she expresses herself using a monumental, more confrontational rationale. The representation of femininity depicted by Saskia Pintelon is sensual and quintessential. Her paintings are like footprints; they infiltrate the canvas, appearing and sometimes disappearing like ghosly shadwos.
This is mankind at its deepest and most fragile, with an ever-present awareness of the social reality of a country where she currently resides, Sri Lanka.
Her strokes, powerful and demanding, are highly expressive and make a statement. No one can remain indifferent in the face of her work. She is described as a "force of nature", and these words in face accompany one of her works: "I am a survivor". We feel a dynamic sense of will, a determindation to survive. The artist appears connected to her work by this energy and obstinate desire to live and we are invited to discover this intense sensation at close quarters.
Saskia is donating her proceeds to building a future foundation social enterpreneurship innovating for peoples future
www.baflk.org
www.belconsulrehabfund.org
Saskia Pintelon
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| Douglas Johnson |
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Born in 1937 in Michigan, Johnson graduated with a Master's Degree in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1962. During his student years, he formed an influential and lasting friendship with composers Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menolth.
He is also inspired by Literature and has a growing reputation as a portraitist of international stature. Johnson used to spend six months of the year at his beach house in Tangalle, on the south coast where he used to paint in a small studio designed by his friend Geoffrey Bawa.. He died in 2002.
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| Anup Vega |
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Anup Vega was born in 1967, kurunegala Sri lanka - phone; 037 4920961 \ email; anupvega @yahoo.com. Anup Vega after thirty years of producing stunning paintings is now considered on of the major players in the Sri Lankan art scene. His solo exhibitions include; 2008 Paradise Road galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2002 gallery 706, Colombo, 2001 Gallery Mountcastle, Colombo, 2000 gallery 706, Colombo, 1998 Gallery Mount Castle, Colombo, and 1997 Heritage Gallery Colombo. Group exhibitions include 2008 Paradise Road galleries, Colombo, 2003, the omnibus, D.S.Senanayake library hall, kandy, 2001 Havelock place bungalow, Colombo, and 2001, young contemporaries, George Keyt foundation, the national art gallery, Colombo. Workshops include 2007 SAARK artist camp, Jaisalmer, Rajastan, India and 2001 the International Artist Camp George Keyt foundation Habarana , Sri Lanka.
Anup Vega
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| Asoka Sellakapu – Exhibiting ‘Blend’ at No 22 Pedlar Street - Ambalangoda Artist |
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[Artist/Designer] Asoka began his carrier soon after leaving school and completed courses in Sri Lankan Traditional Temple Painting- 4 year full time – Colombo Museum . In 1994 Asoka got an opportunity to work in Qatar as a Stained Glass Designer. He got himself involved in designing stained glass, glass etching and sand blasting for two years and returned to Sri Lanka in 1996 to start his own artist business in Ambalangoda, where his studio is based. Last February, Asoka went to Dubai to create some sculptures for a tourist hotel and was there for 60 days. Currently he is busy drawing stunning paintings on wood and canvas.
Asoka
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| Dominic Sansoni & Three Blind Men – Exhibiting at Barefoot, Pedlar StreetArtists include Rukshan Jayewardene and Sebastian |
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Posing is Dominic Sansoni is Sri Lanka's pre-eminent photographer and proprietor of Barefoot Pvt. Ltd. One place you may have seen his photos is in the movie Collateral, where Jamie Foxx kept a tropical shot in the visor of his ill-fated cab. In 2006 he has published two books, COLOUR - his unique look at the Sri Lankan palette and Sri Lanka Style. He has five children and lives in Colombo where he is an active member of the Dutch Burgher Underworld (DBU). It is alleged that he controls 90% of the global traffic in Lamprais, however all witnesses have mysteriously disappeared.
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| Catherine Hewapathirawa – Mapping Galle Fort |
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Artist Catherine Hewapathirana spent months mapping the ancient medieval city of Galle Fort painting in detail the buildings in the maze of backstreets. She decided to work in acrylic on cotton, because she felt it was in keeping with the vibrancy and beauty of this 406-year-old colonial fort. The canvas 127cm x 127cm is mounted on leather brackets making it easy to transport anywhere in the world. The initial sketches started with a small drawing of the artist’s house that sits on a hill just outside the Fort. If you are interested in buying this stunning master piece or talking to the artist she can either be found at her studio on Upper Dickson Road, or her assistant can organize for Catherine to come to the art gallery shop ‘Exotic Roots’ at 32, Church Street next to Galle Fort Hotel to discuss the painting in persons. She was also responsible for the cover painting for the book Around the Fort In 80 Lives – sold worldwide. As part of the Art Trail she will be show casing her hand painted terracotta pots and tiles at Exotic Roots.
Catherine Hewapathirawa
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| Juliet coombe |
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Juliet Coombe bio – International photojournalist exhibts ‘Blue Fort Framed’ at Pilgrims Lounge -31B Rampart Street Also showing a small selection of her work from her book ‘Around The Fort in 80 lives’ at Serendipity Arts Café at 100, Pedlar Street
Armed with a camera, and an instinct for a good tale, Juliet Coombe, who married into an old Fort family, now lives in Galle Fort, Sri Lanka. Her photography in Around the Fort in 80 Lives provides readers with eclectic, local insights. Don’t expect a standard travel image, because she is constantly changing her style, which is illustrated in the collaborative photographic exhibition on different photographers views of Galle Fort at Pilgrims Lounge Number 31B Rampart Street from October 25th for two weeks. Juliet has chosen the colour Blue.
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| Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne |
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Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne is one of the most published writers and photographers from Sri Lanka. Magic of Sri Lanka, Portrait of Sri Lanka, A Photographic Guide to Birds and A Photographic Guide to the Mammals of Sri Lanka (New Holland Publishers, UK) and Sri Lankan Wildlife (Bradt Travel Guides, UK) are amongst the books he has authored and photographed. Free downloads of some of the books he has authored and photographed are on www.jetwingeco.com. He is the CEO of the specialist wildlife travel subsidiary of Jetwing. Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne is on a crusade to create a million wildlife enthusiasts in Sri Lanka.
Exhibtion Photography for creating Livelihoods – At The Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne
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| HAND BUILT, SMOKE FIRED POTTERY by YVETTE SPOWERS |
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Yvette Spowers work is hand-built through a coiling process. Each piece is then smoothed, burnished with a semi-precious stone and fired in a gas kiln. The second firing to create the design is done in a small brick kiln filled with sawdust and slowly smoked to burn the design into the clay There is no addition of glaze, and the pots therefore are not functional for holding water. This process is probably the oldest for making vessels of clay used by most primitive tribes and still found today throughout the world.
Each piece is allowed to take shape organically over a period of time, and in the final firing, the smoke finish always has an element of surprise, depending on the wood used, the weather conditions and the type of clay.
Yvette Has lived in Galle for the last 4 years. She apprenticed with William Attaway in Venice, California and studied at Santa Monica College. She then worked in Wales before coming to Sri Lanka.
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| Deshan Tennekoon – Colombo Photographer-Dead in the Water at Pilgrims Lounge 31b Rampart Street |
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'Dead in the Water'. Deshan Tennekoon lives two lives - by day he is a mild-mannered book designer and by night, a mild-mannered photographer. With no formal training in either discipline it continues to amaze his family and friends that he is able to make a living. His pictures have been published in Time Out Delhi, Liquid, The Moodie Report and Serendib. He lives and works in the oftencrippling humidity of Colombo. This series of pictures is from an on-going personal project titled 'Dead in the Water'.
Deshan Tennekoon
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| Artist L.P.D. Premasiri will exhibit his watercolours title "Saraswathi " – Orchard House |
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Premasiri was Born 15_12_1935 and from an early age was passionate about art. Ocupation; as an art teacher from 1967 to 1995.1956_1959 collage of fine arts University of Colombo. Exhibitions include 1959 Contemporary Art of Sri Lanka group show Moscow USSR.1969 paintings and batik , at Saint, Marys convent Matara, 1986 Budhist paintings group show Matara, and1990 exhibition of paintings by students of Shanthi Neketan, At Lional Wendt Gallery Colombo.
L.P.D. Premasiri
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| K.P Sameera Jayasundara Bandara |
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Art is a communication media to me, to communicate with sensitive people. Sameera first exhibition was in experimental photography and painting at National Art Gallery in 2002. Sameera will painting, photography, sculpture and in architecture.
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| Sabreena Hussain |
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Sabreena Hussain – EXHIBITIONCOLOUR at The Captain’s Daughter’s house number 71, Pedlar Street, Galle Fort opening 25th October at 1pm. This is Sabreena’s first exhibition ‘Colour’ which are inspirations from her recent trip to Europe in particular Venice where she was influenced by the colourful Murano glass makers. She feels Galle Fort is Asia’s version of Venice, only without the canals and tropical colours, which are incorporated into many of her pieces. After the 2nd of November COLOUR will move to Olando Boutique at 30, Church Churcht.
Sabreena Hussain
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| Janaka De Silva |
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Janaka De Silva – exhibits at the Mansion Warehouse – Part of the famous five group & at Sithuvili Arts Shop, 56 Leyn Baan St.
Janaka De Silva inspirations come from temple paintings like Dambulla and Polonnaruwa and in particular images from Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth, museums in Colombo and Dutch Fort. Artist Janaka de Silva has been working for over ten years in this field and has been described as a Sri Lankan artistic version of Modigliani. Janaka’s current art collection shows he has moved away from the brightly coloured traditional Ambalangoda medicine masks, to using them as a canvas to paint historic temple themes and framing them in some cases like artworks or in complete contrast turning them into ordinary household items like plates or candlestick holders. Using ancient painting technique he has branched out to re-create the first ever Jaffna wooden horse sculptures from the ancient Hindu temples in Northern Sri Lanka, replica temple doors, which are now being exported all over the world.
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| Daisy Perry – co-wrote Around the Fort in 80 Lives and will be available for book signings in Court Square all day Saturday at building no1 . |
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Daisy Perry came to Galle as a tsunami volunteer for Project Galle. She has developed an immense respect for the warmth and intelligence of the Fort people, describing them as a “constant source of inspiration”. Their generous hospitality has made her feel that the Fort is her second home. Daisy’s eye for all things idiosyncratic made her a perceptive researcher and interviewer for Around The Fort in 80 Lives – her first book. She studied English Literature at University College London, and is building a career as an international writer and publisher.
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Karl Steinberg – Exhibition Elementary at the Fort House on Lighthouse Street & Faces will be shown in the Sudhu gallery (will discuss moving to Pedlars inn) |
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Karl studied Fine Arts at Melbourne University before attending the Australian Film and Television School where he studied Direction, Editing and Production. He directed film and television for many years and won several national awards and taught acting for camera. In 2003 he moved to Sri Lanka and built the Galle Fort Hotel with his business partner Christopher Ong.
He took up photography in 2005 and this is his first exhibition – Elementary. Karl says “The images are inspirations from “that moment between daylight and darkness when impressions become blurred and open to poetic suggestion.”
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Jiffry Asif – Photokade exhibition at an original Fort house 12, Parawa Road |
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Journey across the world through the doors of 12, Parawa Road Galle Fort, glancing at captivating images of a flower on a windowsill in Venice, a bicycle against a door in Paris, a street painter's tools in St Tropez, Asif's creativity and eye for detail converts the most unlikely images into a work of art. His twin passion for travel and photography comes together in a convergence of amazing photography and captivating art. Most photographs on display is featured in a frame are made out of a part of history using the wood from the structure of the gallery that dates back 150 years. Nestled in valuable teak and mahogany wood frames each photograph is encapsulated by art. Take home a bit of history that can adorn a wall in your home perhaps even become a conversation piece because of its highly distinctive character, all this and more at the Photokade Gallery
Asif
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Ranil Shanaka |
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Ranil is a self taught artist from the hill country of Gampola. A keen and talented draughtsman from a young age, with a strong inclination towards symbolic realism, he pursues a vivid and colourful vision that embodies local imagery couched in a surreal idiom that reflects a yearning for a nostalgic past versus the modern contradictions that suffuse Sri Lanka today. 
Ranil Shanaka
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| Tristan Laurens Bernard, Franco-Italian born in Pakistan – Rocky Fort – Photographs taken in Galle Fort will be showing at Pilgrims Lounge |
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Tristan was raised throughout Asia and has spent most of his time travelling the world. Having lived in over 10 countries and experienced dozens more, he is the consummate globetrotter. His first steps into the world of photography came at an early age, through his father, an amateur film photographer and darkroom developer.
Tristan has a penchant for landscape photography, with a heart for the sea. Most of his shots are taken at the tranquillity of dawn and dusk, the first moments of both cycles, alone with the elements. Using very low shutter speeds to ‘slow down life’, his vision translates what our eyes all look at into what is truly there to see: A canvas bordering the surreal, light from the beauty within everything.
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| The Graffiti Wall "Come paint on me!" |
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