Jagath Weerasinghe is pivotal to contemporary Sri Lankan art and has been a significant driving force in its development since the early 1990s. He was the catalyst for the critical inquiry into Sri Lanka’s civil war and its political climate through visual art practices and is credited for coining the phrase ‘the 90s Art Trend’ to define the work and activities of his peers.
Weerasinghe’s work examines and critiques Sri Lankan anxieties and reflects on the island’s painful history of political violence, national genocide, and horrors of religion and identity. It is marked by a frenzied, passionate expressiveness and a pervasive sense of horror and tragedy that displays an urgent concern for the state of humanity. Decapitated heads, broken stupas (dome-shaped Buddhist shrines), cave temples, dancing Shivas, and male bodies, are recurring themes in his work and exhibit an unresolved dialogue with his subjects.
Jagath Weerasinghe (b.1954, Sri Lanka) holds a Master of Fine Arts from the American University in Washington DC. He is the co-founder of the Theertha Collective and the moving force behind collaborations such as the Colombo Art Biennale. His work has been featured at the Singapore Art Biennale (2006), Art Dubai (2018), and Aicon Gallery, New York (2017). His work belongs to collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), USA and the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan.