The human figure remains central to Manaram Gamage’s practice, yet in Mirages of Our Dreams, the body is no longer a vessel for interior states, but a site of pressure and constraint. Working through an experimental sculptural language, Gamage departs from the convention, allowing for material, weight and composition to disrupt the expected relationship between the body and its surroundings.

The influence of Roman reliefs and Renaissance iconography is present in the physical drama of Gamage’s sculptures; bodies are strained and contorted beneath immense weight, limbs outstretched in resistance, spilling out under the unbearable pressure. These historical references are not reproduced in Gamage’s practice in an act of classical revival. Instead, the artist translates their visual language through the conditions of contemporary life. Steel and concrete – materials that are associated with construction, infrastructure and the relentless march towards urbanity – replace the marble and stone of the classical tradition. Through this material collision, the artist constructs a language all his own, in which the monumental figures of antiquity are reimagined within the material realities of the present.

There is a deliberate tension between the apparent strength of the figures and their inability to move. Dense and muscular, Gamage’s sculptures possess an imposing physicality, yet they are deprived of appendages or rendered inseparable from their bases. They are caught in stasis, unable to translate their strength into autonomy. Arms reach out in resistance, but the weight pressed upon them cannot be escaped, immobilising the masses. This material state raises an inconvenient question: In an urban world where systems of infrastructure, labour and social organisation constantly shape our reality, how much autonomy does the body truly possess? 

Gamage embraces the inherent physicality of steel and concrete, allowing their hardness and industrial associations to become active elements. The resulting molten, amorphous figures appear simultaneously static and dynamic. The sculptures retain traces of the hand, resisting a polished finish and anatomical precision. The measured engagement with the male figure connotes strength and virility while resisting a singular reading of masculinity. Instead, the male body carries with it ideas of vulnerability, endurance and constraint alongside traditional masculine interpretations.

This disruption extends into the artist’s paintings. The figure persists but is obscured beneath a dense ribbon of acrylic. Gamage interrupts the act of looking, rather than offering the viewer complete immediate legibility. Even the orientation of these works unsettles convention. Where the figure and portrait traditionally privilege the vertical format, Gamage places the figure in the landscape composition. Here the body is made to occupy a space that it does not naturally conform to. This subtle shift redirects gaze; the viewer is encouraged to move laterally across the surface to encounter the body within a broader field.

Across sculpture, canvas and paper, Gamage establishes a visual language founded on interruption. Bodies are compressed, obscured and anchored; historical influences are displaced into an industrial present; familiar compositions are disrupted. In Mirages of Our Dreams, the exploration of the physical form gradually becomes an investigation into the structures that determine how bodies can exist, move and be seen.