ARTRA exhibitions Colombo edition from 28-29 June

• Exhibitions within intimate setting of a private collector’s home

What if the future of art isn’t bigger and larger in scale, but more intimate and meaningful? 

ARTRA Experientials, a forthcoming series of exhibitions and art walkthroughs will be taking place in the intimate settings of private collector’s homes in Colombo, including one on 28 Lane, Flower Road, Colombo 07. 

The private art salon experience presented here attempts to redefine how one can experience and engage with contemporary art, where art is not merely viewed on the walls of the space, but is something actively celebrated, critiqued and lived with. 

Set in the home of a private collector on 28th Lane, Flower Road, Colombo 07, the series of exhibitions by ARTRA’s Emerging Artists Best of 2022-2025 collectively reframes the physical space of the home. Walls, entrances and exits become not only boundaries and passageways but also vessels for memory. These exhibitions transform physical space into a gallery of lived realities – where each room is a witness and a dynamic archive of one’s social, spiritual, and emotional lives. 

ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2022 K. Mathismuar, presents his exhibition ‘Wounded Faith’ amidst a curated series of exhibitions by ARTRA’s Emerging Artists Best of 2022-2025. Turning inward, his latest collection critically explores the scars of ethnic conflict and religious chaos left over by the Sri Lankan civil war, interrogating the cost such divisiveness has had on our post-war climate. Melding acrylics and mixed media to depict religious structures such as pagodas, mosques and churches, Mathiskumar acknowledges the wounds of distrust that still run through our nation, while highlighting the strength of these spaces as traditional pillars of community. In this collection, he invites viewers to envision a harmonious Sri Lanka, and asks the critical question: “Are we truly at peace?”

In striking parallel to K. Mathiskumar’s exhibit, the mixed media works of ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2023 Malki Jayakody, continues the notion that physical environments can carry vestiges of ideology, conflict, and history. Her exhibition ‘Places of Persistence’ critically examines colourism by tracing its roots to colonial ideology. Centring the Sri Lankan landscape as a historical site of colonisation, Jayakody challenges the constructed notion of the island as a ‘paradise’ and instead reframes it as a site of systemic erasure. By centring the lush paddy fields of her hometown Asgirya, her work interrogates how colonial perceptions of land, labour, and skin continue to shape our beauty ideals and social hierarchies. Through hand-stitched embroidery, acrylics, and watercolour, her mixed-media compositions are tactile meditations on the unseen wounds that continue to inform our societal standards of beauty, both in our environment and among ourselves.

Moving from the power dynamics inherent to colonised land and labour, ‘Bordered Bodies’ the latest exhibition of ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2023 Mohamed Hathi, interrogates the dynamics of power and gender inherent to domestic spaces. Drawing from his observations in the East of the country, Hathi presents vignettes of patriarchal oppression and feminist resistance, capturing the daily struggles faced by women for their autonomy. In this collection, he focuses on the social convention of marriage as a tool of patriarchal control – where the institution, often idealised as sacred or stabilising, becomes instead a mechanism of surveillance and ownership. Through his bold manipulation of the human form, Hathi exposes how women’s bodies are policed and claimed within the dynamics of the home, and the larger society. 

Adding to Hathi’s exploration of discrimination and resistance, ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2024 Rajani Serasinghe uses the cyclical patterns of nature to reflect upon the resilience and transformation inherent to existence. Her exhibition ‘Impermanence’ acknowledges the natural impermanence of life. Her stunning mosaics poignantly examines the ever-shifting nature of existence and the strength of perseverance in nature. By repurposing discarded objects through recycled glass and materials, she transforms what was once forgotten into vibrant symbols of renewal. Each piece reflects the cyclical rhythms of destruction and renewal found in nature, illustrating how loss is intrinsically linked to growth. Employing diverse motifs from human to animal, her work celebrates the resilience of life as it evolves, constantly adapting and reinventing itself amidst the inevitability of change.

Finally, tying together the curatorial theme of the collective series of Emerging Artists’ exhibitions, ‘The Room’ an exhibition of woodcut prints by ARTRA’s Emerging Artist, Best of 2025 Venura Madurapperuma investigates the bedroom as a site of memory and subjective human experiences. Touching on French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s ‘The Poetics of Space’, Madurapperuma explores the bedroom as a psychological terrain — a container of unique sensations, unspoken memories, and the quiet persistence of self. Referencing bold and emotive Expressionist aesthetics reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh, Madurapperuma’s series of woodcut prints warp line, rhythm, and form to evoke a disorienting sense of isolation, anxiety, and desperate longing. In this collection, he frames the spaces of the home as a mirror to a person’s most vulnerable truths, and a witness to their most intimate moments of turmoil. 

ARTRA Experientials signal a return to a consumption of art that is more personable, accessible and human. In the spirit of generosity, it approaches art as a social act, one rooted in conversation, cross-disciplinary exchange, and community. 

Progressing that initiative, Koralegedara Pushpakumara’s exhibition ‘The Brutality Within’ will be showcasing in Colombo this June. Debuting at Art Trail by ARTRA at the Galle Literary Festival in February earlier this year, his poignant exhibition of striking abstract works, which delve into the trauma of the Civil War, will be shifted from the historic walls of The Fort Printers, Galle Fort to Colombo for a time. This is part of ARTRA’s Island Gallery initiative, bringing to life a vision to curate revolving spaces for contemporary art across the island for increased accessibility and consumption. Island Gallery reformats the art gallery formula, transforming unconventional spaces into galleries of assortments, with the overarching vision to connect the entire island through a continuing series of art exhibitions. In line with this, ‘Body is…’ the joint photography exhibition by Kesara Ratnavibhushana and French Cowboy, recently journeyed from The Merchant, Galle Fort to inhabit the culturally rich space of the iconic Brief Garden by Bevis Bawa in Bentota. The exhibition opened on Thursday, 22 May and is currently open for public view. ARTRA Experientials in June will include “Will to Power,” a solo exhibition by Kesara Ratnavibhushana, featuring a retrospective view of his photographic practice over the years. 

Intersecting visual arts and literature, ARTRA Experientials will be a platform to launch ARTRA Magazine’s Women and Modernism Volume I Edition 69, on Thursday 26 June. This forthcoming edition of the magazine will explore Sri Lankan women artists who practiced in the mid 1900s in Sri Lanka with particular attention to Nalini Jayasuriya (1927-2014) and Swanee Jayawardene (1930-2010). These two artists were among 11 women who exhibited with the ’43 Group between 1943 and 1967. This edition delves into their lives and artistic practices, highlighting their significance within the modernist movement in Sri Lanka, while addressing the larger historical neglect and obscurity surrounding a lost generation of women artists whose contributions have been underrepresented in the literature of their time.

By situating critical, often underrepresented narratives within culturally resonant yet unconventional sites, ARTRA Experientials create intimate, reflective spaces for both artists and audiences. These interventions are not merely exhibitions, but are also acts of reclamation and reimagination, where art can provoke, question, and evolve beyond institutional confines. Here, away from the market’s glare, new ideas are given room to grow, and challenge industry norms.