Uncovered — Beyond taboo

Senani Senanayake “Untitled”

• A celebration of the human figure through the eyes of contemporary Sri Lankan artists

“UNCOVERED — BEYOND TABOO”: A celebration of the human figure through the eyes of contemporary Sri Lankan artists will be held from 25–27 September at the Sky Gallery, Colombo 5 From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

For centuries, artists have returned to the human figure to attempt to understand what it means to be human. From classical sculpture and renaissance painting to modern and contemporary art, the nude has provided artists with a language for exploring anatomy, movement, intimacy, psychology and the complex relationship between the observed and the observer. Yet representations of the human body can still sit uneasily within public discourse in Sri Lanka. 

UNCOVERED — BEYOND TABOO seeks neither to provoke nor to sensationalise. It seeks to open a conversation.

Bringing together thirteen Sri Lankan artists, the exhibition explores one of the most enduring subjects in the history of art: the human figure. Their works explore the human form not simply as an object of beauty, but as a language of emotion, identity, vulnerability, strength, movement, memory and imagination. Some approach the body through careful observation and anatomical study; others respond through expressive line, colour, gesture, abstraction or painterly interpretation. Importantly, UNCOVERED brings together both male and female artists in this shared exploration of the human figure.

The exhibition features the work of: Michael Anthonisz, Rashid Abdur-Rahman, Ranjuka Kumarasiri, Thusith Himasha, Senani Senanayake, Shanaka Kulathunga, Tissa Ranansinghe, Sachith de Silva, Nuwan Thenuwara, Dillai Joseph, Nishitha Wanigasuriya and Pavithra Dissanayaka. 

Together, their works demonstrate how differently artists can respond to the same fundamental subject. The result is not one definition of the human figure, but thirteen individual ways of seeing it.

The female figure has occupied a particularly prominent place in the history of art, but the way it is represented is never neutral. Women artists too have a long and important relationship with the representation of the female body; as artists, observers and interpreters of the human form. Their participation in this exhibition reminds us that the representation of the female body cannot be reduced to a single gaze, gender or point of view.

UNCOVERED therefore asks audiences to look beyond the immediate question of whether a work depicts an uncovered body, and instead consider a more fundamental question: What is the artist trying to tell us through the figure? A gesture can express vulnerability. A posture can suggest strength. A line can reveal movement. Stillness can communicate emotion. The human form can become a landscape for memory, identity and imagination.

UNCOVERED creates a space in which figure art can be approached with artistic freedom, sensitivity and respect. The intention is not to dictate how audiences should respond to the works. Some may find them beautiful. Others may find them challenging. Some may see vulnerability; others strength, sensuality, isolation, movement; or simply the extraordinary complexity of the human form. All are legitimate responses to art. 

What matters is that we look. Because perhaps the real challenge is not the human body itself, but the assumptions we bring when we look at it.

UNCOVERED — BEYOND TABOO is ultimately not an exhibition about nudity. It is an exhibition about looking. About observation, interpretation and the freedom to see the human form as art. And perhaps, about learning to look beyond what we think we already know.

Sky Gallery of the Fareed Uduman Art Forum is a contemporary art space in Colombo dedicated to creating opportunities for artists and audiences to encounter art in meaningful and accessible ways.