For the latest edition of our ‘Gallery to Gallery’ series, Sri Lankan gallerist Saskia Fernando and Argentinian gallerist Gonzalo Elias discuss the artists they are bringing to the Spotlight section at Frieze Masters this year and the particular demands of working with the families and estates of dead artists. They also consider their respective geographies, and the work that remains to be done both culturally and economically to platform artists from the so-called ‘Global South’.
Chris Waywell Saskia, can you say a little bit about the artist you’re showing in Spotlight this year, H.A. Karunaratne (1929–2026)?
Saskia Fernando Yes, he’s a very important Sri Lankan modernist whose work was influenced by the New York School and Mono-Ha from his time in New York and Japan. He is widely acknowledged in South Asia and Japan; featured in institutional collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art New Delhi, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art Himeji, and the National Museum of Art Osaka. He was a very reclusive artist who followed Zen Buddhism, and so he didn’t have any interest in being in the public space. We started working with his children a couple of years ago because he was already quite unwell, and they were concerned that their father’s legacy should be secured and appreciated. Sadly, he passed away a week after Dr. Devika Singh called us with the invitation to feature him in Spotlight.
