Mahen Perera's Canvas Attack

This title does not very accurately reflect the work of Mahen Perera, but I thought it would get you reading. Please continue:
Attacking a canvas is what Sri Lankan artist Mahen actually does, but he does it with passion and devotion, not in any blind rage.
Perera graduated from Singapore's La Salle, which already sets him apart from most of his contemporaries who -- flogging themselves through four years of domestic institutional drudgery-- lack the exposure and inspiration an open art environment brings, and as a result produce limittless amounts of blackened human shapes on oversized canvasses.
Perera is a researcher. He looks for what is real in his paintings. The pretty and decorative realistic pictures he originally painted, had to go. By scrubbing clean his canvasses, erasing the unwanted prettyness, he stumbled upon a real emotion. His canvasses became sculptures, intense and beautiful and ....disturbing.
Time Lost & Found is the title of this delightful exhibition.Please do yourself a favor and go and see his work at Barefoot.

here is a peek
read more about Mahen Perera here and here, or here

Conversations 2 -Berengere Brooks

As far as women are concerned, having children might be one of life's most transitional times, changing the way we feel about others and about ourselves. Berengere Brooks has captured the emotions of women surrounding motherhood in her installation "Conversations" of which a preview was held at the kOOii Art Space last Sunday (see earlier entry).
In the video "Women" she shows the viewer about the seemingly conflicting but intrinsically contemporary female emotions of wanting or having children.
In "Mothers " she allows mothers of young daughters to reflect on their own mothers. Juxtaposed, these two short videos leave the viewer with sense of humanity that must be empowering to many.
Brooks is not the first artist to explore motherhood and womanhood from these angles, and won't be the last. Her approach however validates peoples natural ability for love and exalts common feelings as part of the turmoil which surrounds our lives and relationships.

Some images of the preview at kOOii:


My Great Love: Stereophonic Installation 1"29" Women talking about their big love, how much they can love someone and talk about moments of intimacy.

Paintings in acrylic on brown paper
The Origin of The World Photograph 24 x 38 inch
A direct reference to the famous Courbet painting "the Origin of the World" (1866). Where does the world start? Where do we come from? Do we become women by giving birth? What happens if it is not a natural birth? Have we failed in any way? What about women who choose not to give birth naturally?

6 Months in the Office -photographic installation
My first day in the office...how was it? How do each of us mark our territory in a working space? And where are the human beings? Can we still keep our individuality in there?



for a review of the preview in The Bottom Line newspaper click here

“Conversations” - Preview of work by Berengere Brooks

French artist, theatre - and fashion designer Berengere Brooks, is returning to conceptual work with new work in the exhibition “Conversations”. Brooks is exploring motherhood, women-hood, but also our working spaces, through the use of different media such as video, photography, installation and painting.

Berengere Brooks’ background in theatre design has almost certainly influenced her choice of working with installations, where space, props sounds or lighting all become part of the experience.

The 3-dimensional component of installation art allows the viewer to become an active part of the artwork by simply walking into the space or - as it is the case with one of her latest works- by sitting down in a comfortable armchair.

Brooks creates her videos using bits of interviews she held with various women she has met – and assembled these bits as one would cut and paste pieces of paper to make a more traditional collage.

Talking to women about certain issues like motherhood and relationships with other women in their lives, has also led her to investigate her own behaviour and her everyday life. Women and gender issues have always been her predominant subject, and she has expanded the focus to include issues relating to children,siblings and mothers.

By making herself a character of her own fiction she follows in the footsteps of French contemporary female artists Sophie Calle and Annette Messager.

The themes of individuality and inability to communicate emerge from these last works as a struggle that each of us has to face, both in our work and our family environment.

Without giving us answers, Berengere Brooks makes us look closely and from a different angle at our own relationships with our immediate kith and kin. Is that not the role of any artist?

kOOii Art Space presents an exclusive preview of her work on Sunday 7 June. from 10 am-6 pm

Sri Lanka in Spain

Cora de Lang, the German-Argentinian artist who currently lives in Sri Lanka, is representing her host-country at an art exhibition in Barceloneta, a suburb of cool Barcelona.
The exhibition "The Sixth Continent" opens on the 4th of June at the Civic Centre in Barceloneta.
She is the only "Asian " artist participating in this show, curated by Patrícia Fernández.

The Sri Lankan Pages 2

The Sri Lankan Pages, the exhibition by the cosmopolitan kiwi artist Chrys Hill, was a well received event as these images will confirm. The remarks in the guest book revealed that many people are sad to see Chrys leave Sri Lanka.
Read an interview with Chrys Hill in The Bottom Line web edition

Exhibition The Sri Lankan Pages

‘The Sri Lankan Pages’ is the title of an exhibition of new work by New Zealand artist Chrys Hill, which will be on show at the kOOii Art Space this weekend 30-31 May 2009.

The works for this show consist of fragments made up from images and moments in Sri Lanka. These separate images are presented as a collected experience. As the title of the show reflects The Sri Lankan Pages is much like pages from a book that have been removed and relocated onto a wall.

Some of the units are exhibited as individual pieces, allowing for people to collect them as a separate work or to combine groupings of them into their own combinations. Regardless of how you approach this exhibition the works should provide a rich visual experience and opportunities to reflect.

Chrys has spent the last 11 years working and travelling abroad. He has been exhibiting since 1970 and has featured in a large number of solo and group shows in a variety of countries including New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, India, United Kingdom.

This show is his first Sri Lankan exhibition and comes at the conclusion of a 2 year residency in Colombo where he has been teaching Art at the Overseas School of Colombo.

The Sri Lankan Pages at kOOii art space on Saturday 30 May& Sunday 31 May 2009 from 3-6 pm

saskia fernando gallery

It was high time that Colombo would get its first real art gallery, meaning a building exclusively devoted to contemporary art and not as a fringe event to a creative business.

While Barefoot and Paradise Road Galleries remain interesting places, the new Saskia Fernando Gallery is such a perfect place it is hard to know where to begin to describe it!

To start with the space itself: a glorious little building right in Colpetty with a lovely atmosphere, good light and a great little courtyard, that most of the time features work by fast rising star Prageeth Manohansa.
Then there is the rotating exhibition schedule with artworks by well known artists such as Jagath Weerasinghe, Chandragupta Thenuwara, Anoma Wijewardena and Saskia Pringiers combined with the younger generation of Theertha artists such as Thisath Thoradeniya (click on link to see the kOOii blog entry on his power plugs and switch boards).

Each piece is carefully chosen to create a coherence in colour and atmosphere to allow the viewer to see each work as an entity as well as part of a larger (Sri Lankan) story. Owner Saskia Fernando knows how to make sure each work find its place , a talent that she might have gained through DNA as much as through experience. She said she will still remain the curator of her fathers Paradise Road Gallery.
The gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm and by appointment
61 Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka.