Jagath Weerasinghe

ARTIST BIO

Jagath Weerasinghe is pivotal to contemporary Sri Lankan art and has been a significant driving force in its development since the early 1990s. Weerasinghe’s work is marked by a frenzied, passionate expressiveness and a pervasive sense of horror and tragedy that displays an urgent concern with the human condition. His work examines and critiques Sri Lankan anxieties, responding to collective attitudes—as he identifies them, taking themes such as nationhood, religion, identity, and confrontation for commentary. Weerasinghe’s work reflects an unresolved dialogue with his subjects, as shown through recurrent themes of decapitated heads, broken stupas (dome-shaped Buddhist shrines), dead bodies, birds and dancing Shivas. Jagath Weerasinghe (b.1954, Sri Lanka) holds a Master of Fine Arts from the American University in Washington DC. He is the co-founder of the Theertha Collective and the moving force behind collaborations such as the Colombo Art Biennale. His work has been featured at the Singapore Art Biennale (2006), Art Dubai (2018), and Aicon Gallery, New York (2017). His work belongs to collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), USA and the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan.

CONCEPT

Jagath Weerasinghe in his interpretation of the ginger jar oscillates between deep despair and rueful hope, as he contemplates the future of Sri Lanka - one that carries the burden of its thirty year long war.

The artist writes:
A yellow ray descends through murky misty skies. 
Illuminating a land where sorrow never ends.
A haunting testament to a broken land.
Struggles emerge from every direction.
Yet amidst the chaos, there lies a hidden green land.
Not serene, but a sanctuary, as it could be.