Pala Pothupitiya

Pala Pothupitiye

2024

Made in Britain

Acrylic on Canvas

23cm x 30 cm

Artist Bio

Pala Pothupitiya confronts issues of colonialism, nationalism, religious extremism and militarism in his work. He extends his inquiry to the questions of caste, the distinction between art and craft, tradition and modernity, and generating a critique of Euro-centrism. Raised in a family of traditional southern Sri Lankan craft artists and ritualists, his work often incorporates and reinterprets traditional art's material and philosophical content.
Pothupitiya participated in the Third Fukuoka Triennial, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan (2005), and has won the jury award of the Sovereign Art Asian Prize, Hong Kong (2010). He has participated in numerous art exhibitions and art events locally and internationally including Colomboscope, Sri Lanka (2013), Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka (2012), Serendipity Art Festival, Goa (2015), Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2016), Inaugural Karachchi Biennale, Pakistan (2017), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Spain (2019).
Pothupitiya was a founding member of Theertha International Artists Collective. He is also the founder of the Mullegama Art Center, where he runs an art school and workshops, supporting younger artists and schoolchildren. Pothupitiya obtained his BFA from the Visual and Performance Art University in Colombo, Sri Lanka.