Jagath Weerasinghe launches his solo art exhibition in Colombo, capturing global anxieties and local histories through raw visual language. Hosted at Saskia Fernando Gallery, this evocative presentation channels deep political disillusionment into visceral, fluid compositions confronting systemic violence and enduring trauma.
About the Exhibition
Saskia Fernando Gallery presents Trapped in a Broken Dream, I Still Think of You, a powerful solo art exhibition by Jagath Weerasinghe in Colombo. The show carries the heavy emotional weight of the artist’s disillusionment with contemporary structures of global violence. Visitors will encounter a critical and philosophical engagement with systemic issues that shape global conflict, translating sharp intellectual inquiry into intense visual forms. The presentation highlights a distinct shift in the texture and tonality of the artist’s recurring subjects.
Artist Practice
Jagath Weerasinghe is a pivotal figure in contemporary Sri Lankan art, driving its development since the early 1990s. His compositions are defined by a frenzied, passionate expressiveness and intense gestural brushwork. A pervasive sense of tragedy runs through his art, reflecting an urgent concern with local and global political orders. His acclaimed works belong to prestigious collections worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Fukuoka Art Museum, and the Devi Art Foundation in Delhi.
Key Themes and Highlights
The exhibition features the striking series Fury, where Weerasinghe returns to the agonizing subject of the mothers of the disappeared. Fluid ink movements on paper capture the angst of women waiting two decades since the end of the civil war, showing how a desperate plea morphs into collective rage.
In Insistent Threat, hurried black wisps mirror the lingering echoes of 1980s state terror. The exhibition also reinterprets the deity Shiva. Moving away from the isolated responses of his early career, this modern version of the God of Dance and Destruction embodies a righteousness that justifies global violence as an ideological necessity, coloring the ocean red with inward and outward rage. Finally, Sleep of Reason displays the artist’s body prostrated like a boulder, caught in a disquieting landscape of monsters and blooms where changing the status quo feels impossibly heavy.
Exhibition Details
Title: Trapped in a Broken Dream, I Still Think of You
Artist: Jagath Weerasinghe
Venue: Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dates: 26.06.26-19.07.26
Gallery Website: saskiafernandogallery.com
This article has been created from the press kit shared with Abir Pothi. For press releases and related queries, write to editor@abirpothi.com.
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