JAGATH WEERASINGHE

Altar
Signed and dated 'Jagath 97.3' (Lower left)
Acrylic on Paper
11.8in x 16.5in (30cm x 42cm)
Painted in 1997

Provenance
Acquired from an Exhibition by Ms Sunethra Bandaranaike

Jagath Weerasinghe (b.1954) has been pivotal to contemporary Sri Lankan art and has been significantly influencing its development since the early 1990s. His work is marked by a frenzied, passionate expressiveness and a pervasive sense of horror and tragedy that displays an urgent concern for the human condition.

Weerasinghe critiques Sri Lankan anxieties, responding to collective attitudes—as he identifies them, taking themes such as nationhood, religion, identity, and confrontation for commentary. His art maintains 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 holds a Master of Fine Arts (1991) from the American University in Washington DC. Additionally Weerasinghe is the co-founder of the Theertha Collective and the moving force behind collaborations such as the Colombo Art Biennale. Exhibitions featuring his work include the Singapore Art Biennale (2006), Art Dubai (2018), and Aicon Gallery, New York (2017). Collections containing his work can be found at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), USA and the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan.