Jagath Weerasinghe Sri Lankan , b. 1954
Jagath Weerasinghe is pivotal to the exposure of contemporary Sri Lankan art, and has been a significant driving force in its development since the early 1990s. His own art, mostly as a painter and draughtsman, is deeply informed by his society’s actions. 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. The artist’s work reflects his unresolved dialogue with his subjects, as shown through a number of series of recurrent themes.
Jagath Weerasinghe holds a Master of Fine Arts from the American University in Washington DC. As a co-founder of the Theertha Collective and the moving force behind collaborations such as the Colombo Art Biennale, Weerasinghe has lectured on the local contemporary art scene internationally alongside his work as the Head of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology. The combination of his role as an artist and archaeologist is evident in his body of work.
Weerasinghe has been a significant driving force in the development of Sri Lankan art since the early 1990s. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the American University in Washington DC.
He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours in Painting at the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka in 1981. In 1985 he received a Conservation of Wall Paintings, International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome, which was followed in 1988 by a Conservation of Rock Art from the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. In 1991 Weerasinghe obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the American University, Washington, D.C.
Weerasinghe coined the phrase ‘90s Art Trend’, recognising at the time the need for a cohesive framework to describe the activity of his peer group. This adopting of a phrase as framework by Weerasinghe acted as a catalyst for theoretical inquiry into the politically conscious contemporary art praxis of the 1990s in Sri Lanka. He was commissioned by the Sri Lankan government to design the monument ‘Shrine for the Innocent’ as a remembrance for the innocent victims of the violence that the southern part of the country experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the work completed in 1999. He co-founded the Theertha International Artists Collective in 2000, and served as its Chairman till 2017. Theertha continues to foster new artists and initiatives. He describes current Sri Lankan artists as living in an era of ‘para-modernism’.
Weerasinghe's works have been exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Netherlands, Germany and Japan.
He has received numerous awards, including the David Lloyed Kreeger Award, American University; Bunka Cultural Award, Sri Lanka; Hirayama Silk Road Fellowship; Visiting Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, University of London; ICCROM Fellowship for Conservation Studies, ICCROM, Rome; Visiting Fellow, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa and Visiting Scholar, University of California at Berkeley and at University of Texas.
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APRIL WORKS: BACKPACKS, BOMBS & BORDERS
Jagath Weerasinghe 21 May - 18 Jun 2020In this series, created between April/May 2019, Weerasinghe responds to the Easter Attacks that occurred in Sri Lanka. In Los Angeles during this time, Weerasinghe began a smaller series of...Read more -
Crossing Place, Baik Art Los Angeles
Jagath Weerasinghe, Pakkiyarajah Pushpakanthan, Saskia Pinetelon, Priyantha Udagedara, Chandraguptha Thenuwera 20 Apr - 1 Jun 2019When contemporary art from South East Asia enjoys increasing global attention, Baik Art is pleased to present Crossing Place, a unique exploration of contemporary art from Sri Lanka. The exhibition,...Read more -
Belief: The Promise of Absence
Jagath Weerasinghe 16 Nov - 6 Dec 2018The works in this show, as usual, are about social calamities and personal pains. Currently the world is experiencing a major civilizational crisis played out as mass migration - millions...Read more -
With or without meaning
Jagath Weerasinghe 30 Jun - 22 Jul 2016With or Without Meaning combines Jagath Weerasinghe’s painting, drawing and installation work as a philosophical expression of the transitory nature of being. In perhaps his least political works to date...Read more -
Decorated & Emergency at Breese Little Gallery
JAGATH WEERASINGHE, SUJEEWA KUMARI, PRIYANTHA UDAGEDARA, NADIA HAJI OMAR & PRAGEETH MANOHANSA 29 May - 28 Jun 2014BREESE LITTLE, London, and Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, are delighted to present Decorated and Emergency, two exhibitions of contemporary Sri Lankan artists. Decorated is established artist Jagath Weerasinghe’s first UK...Read more -
Drawings
Chandraguptha Thenuwara & Jagath Weerasinghe 2 - 30 Oct 2012Drawings takes place as a dual exhibition of drawings by Chandraguptha Thenuwara and Jagath Weerasinghe, staged simultaneously in London and Colombo. Thenuwara and Weerasinghe are among Sri Lanka’s foremost artists....Read more -
Mediated
Asvajit Boyle, Ameena Hussein, Iromi Perera, Mika Tennekoon, Asanga Welikala, Jagath Weerasinghe, Anushka Wijesinha, Sunela Jayawardena 23 Aug - 15 Sep 2012Four individuals – a researcher, an economist, a constitutional theorist and an award winning novelist – were invited to give submissions that were anchored to issues vital to a greater...Read more -
Contemporary Art from Sri Lanka 2011
Muhanned Cader Druvinka Kingsley Gunatillake Vajira Gunawardene Dumith Kulasekara Sanjeewa Kumara Sujeewa Kumari Prageeth Manohansa Pala Pothupitiye Saskia Pintelon Jagath Ravindra Tilak Samarawickrema Chandraguptha Thenuwara Jagath Weerasinghe Anoma Wije 1 - 12 Mar 2011Writing on contemporary Sri Lankan art at this ‘moment’ in history is difficult. It seems that most of the artists that made the last decades of the 20th century and...Read more -
Shiva Natarajah
Jagath Weerasinghe 24 - 30 Apr 2009An artist and an academic, he is often conflicted by his drive to be both. He received his MFA from the American University in Washington DC, USA, he heads the...Read more
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Saskia Pintelon, Hema Shironi, Firi Rahman (We Are From Here Project), Jagath Weerasinghe, Abdul Halik Azeez, Muvindu Binoy present at Language is Migrant, Colomboscope 2022
January 25, 2022SFG is please to announce the participation of artists Saskia Pintelon, Hema Shironi, Firi Rahman (We Are From Here Project), Jagath Weerasinghe, Abdul Halik Azeez...Read more -
Jagath Weerasinghe @ Davidson College Galleries
October 2019 - December 2019 October 29, 2019Because of these visceral encounters with inhumanity, cruelty, and genocide, Weerasinghe still draws on these themes in his current work. Though he works in multiple...Read more -
Five @ Baik Art Los Angeles
June 2019 - August 2019 June 30, 2019In the spirit of remembrance, the gallery has invited all of the artists previously involved with our programs to exhibit collectively at our Culver City...Read more -
Difference Framing
Sanjana Hattotuwa May 25, 2018“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” ―...Read more
