Young Artists

Anjalendran has gone out of his way to help a new generation of artists, encouraging his clients to buy the work of young painters and sculptors, and his Colombo house contains a remarkable collection of contemporary art.

Jagath Weerasinghe was born in Colombo in 1956 and studied archaeology at the University of Kelaniya and fine art at American University in Washington. He characterises the art of recent decades as being concerned with the expression of the ‘here and now’, and his work eschews the notion of art as a private dialogue, insisting that it engage with a wider public.

Muhanned Cader and his wife Mariah Lookman are neighbours of Anjalendran. Muhanned was born in Colombo in 1966 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is one of the more cerebral artists at work today, and explores the limits of draughtsmanship in relation to line and colour.

Kingsley Gunatillake was born in Wadduwa in 1951 and studied at the universities of Kelaniya and Glasgow Strathclyde. Much of his work is overtly ‘political’ and he attempts to use his canvasses to explore such as issues as the dilemma of ‘displacement’ caused by Sri Lanka’s civil war.

Anoli Perera confronts the male domination of the art world head on. Her installations occupy an interstitial zone between art and craft, while as a sculptor she has experimented with a variety of media including strip metal and stone.

Works by Jagath Weerasinghe

Sculpture by Anoli Perera; Works by Kingsley Gunatillake; Works by Muhanned Cader

The central ambalama in the Galle SOS Children’s Village