SANJEEWA KUMARA

RE-IMAGINING

AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS

SANJEEWA KUMARA

11 DECEMBER 2014 - 11 JANUARY 2015

RE-IMAGINING; PICTURING THE TRADITION OF THE NEW

I prefer to refer to my work as re-imagined pictures rather than paintings or text. An abstract painting or abstract expressionist painting is rarely a picture; an abstract painting is a painting because it dwells primarily on the material and surface. But by using the reference picture I make implications of a space that one goes into. I prefer to work with the traditional medium of oil paints perhaps due to my interest in art history and that notion to be a part of the 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’m doing the same thing that people have always done. What is special about painting pictures is that I can lie with it endlessly. There are no boundaries.

The simplicity of my image is deceptive; and though they are often happy, beautiful images, my pictures force the viewer to delve into their unconscious (both the Freudian concepts of the unconscious and the uncanny are underlying themes). The uncanny, the fantastic, the marvelous, the hesitation and the supernatural is very important to my work.

My composition and elements of form such as line, color, volume, texture and space provide far more than purely aesthetic pleasure. As form is an organic structure and in the process of picture-making pictorial forms are selected and rearranged. This technique of production is my message and expression. Expression, according to the Chinese, “is the result of the action of the mind traveling unhesitatingly through the brush.’’ Thereby the act of painting is more than an observable form. In an age where painting is recognized as a traditional medium I find painting still has specific capacities of its own to discover and exploit, and thus be unconventional and revolutionary. Sanjeewa KumaraDecember, 2014

1. STAR, Oil on canvas, 92 x 123cm

2. TULABARA DANA; WORTH YOUR WEIGHT IN GOLD, Oil on canvas, 92 x 123cm

3. SEEING STARS, Oil on canvas, 150 x 110cm

4. UNCANNY PERSONALITY II, Oil on canvas, 100 x 80cm

5. JOY OF INFINITY, Oil on canvas, 92x123cm

6. A PERFECT WORLD, Oil on canvas, 80 x 60cm

7. TRUE AFFECTION, Oil on canvas, 92 x 123cm

8. ASCENDANCE; BEYOND WISHFUL THINKING, Oil on canvas, 158 x 118cm

9. THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, Oil on canvas, 100 x 80cm

10. ON THE EDGE, Oil on canvas, 37 x 48cm

11. THE SILENCE OF JOY I, Oil on canvas, 70 x 90cm

12. UNCANNY PERSONALITY I, Oil on canvas, 160 x 120 cm

13. THE JOY OF AN UNCANNY PERSONALITY, Oil on canvas, 160 x 120cm

14. THE SOUR KISS, Oil on canvas, 30 x 42cm

15. THE LANGUOR OF LOVE, Oil on canvas, 62 x 43cm

16. ECHOING, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36cm

17. LOOK OUT, Oil on canvas, 36 x 28cm

18. APSARA, Oil on canvas, 36 x 28cm

19. FREE WILL, Oil on canvas, 36 x 47cm

20. OLD ARGUMENTS ON ORIENTALISM, Oil on canvas, 42 x 32cm

21. THE SILENCE OF JOY II, Oil on canvas, 30 x 36cm

SANJEEWA KUMARA b.1971

EDUCATION2003 Masters of Fine Arts, Dutch Art Iinstitute, 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 EXHIBITIONS2013 Paradise Road Galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka2004 Villa De Bank in Enschede, The Netherlands2003 Paradise Road Galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka2003 Gallery Art Korner in The Hague, Netherlands2002-11 Paradise Road Galleries, Colombo, Sri Lanka2000 Galerie De Waagh, Oldenzaal, The Netherlands2000 De Tjongerschans in Heerenveen, The Netherlands

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2013-14 Garden of Eden, Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, Malaysia2011 Contemporary Art from Sri Lanka, Asia House, London, UK2009 Colombo Art Biennale, Colonbo, 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, France2008 Recent Developments in Contemporary Sri Lankan Paintings, Gallery Art Korner, The Netherlands2007 Where, What, Who, When and How, Barefoot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2005 Sri Lankan and Australian Artists Exhibition, The Cross Art Projects, Sydney, Australia2003 NOT HOME SICK, Villa De Bank and Rijksmuseum, Twenthe, The Netherlands.2001 Visva Karma, Head office Hivos, Den Hague, The Netherlands2001 De Witte Kamer Gallery, Delden, The Netherlands2001 Art Affairs, Galierie fur Internationale kunst, Starzach, Germany2001 Update 001, Das Atelierhaus in Gronau, Germany

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EMAIL: art@paradiseroad.lk