Kingsley Gunatillake

Kingsley Gunatillake

2024

Oto

Acrylic on Canvas

30 x 23 cm

Artist Bio

Kingsley Gunatillake is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is largely focused on abstract compositions on canvas and paper. His process involved the use of wooden blocks in the instinctive manipulation of paint with calligraphic movements. As a multidisciplinary artist his practice includes painting, installation, illustration, mixed media, sculpture and video art. Painting is one of this master artist’s dominant practices in which his unique sense of color as well as masterly abstractions on two-dimensional surfaces is strongly evident. Living in a country battered by a war for 30 years, Kingsley has addressed his social, political and cultural issues in his works. In 2001 he received the Bunka Award for visual arts for his exceptional work at the Temple of the Tooth world heritage site in Sri Lanka. The artist presented his first solo exhibition in 1981 and continued to work on more than twenty solo exhibitions both locally and internationally, participating in numerous group shows. He founded the Child Art Studio in 2000 and has conducted various art activities especially for children. Through the organization, funded mostly from Japan, he has organized several local and international workshops, international exhibitions, and local exhibitions. More recently, his ‘book art’ series presented antique books as visual objects representative of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.