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TOP 200 ARTISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY TO NOW
TIMES READERS AND SAATCHI ONLINE VISITORS VOTE FOR THEIR FAVOURITE ARTISTS
AFTER 1.4 MILLION VOTES WERE CAST, HERE ARE YOUR LEADING 200 ARTISTS:
| - | Pablo Picasso |
| - | Paul Cezanne |
| - | Gustav Klimt |
| - | Claude Monet |
| - | Marcel Duchamp |
| - | Henri Matisse |
| - | Jackson Pollock |
| - | Andy Warhol |
| - | Willem De Kooning |
| - | Piet Mondrian |
| - | Paul Gauguin |
| - | Francis Bacon |
| - | Robert Rauschenberg |
| - | Georges Braque |
| - | Wassily Kandinsky |
| - | Constantin Brancusi |
| - | Kasimir Malevich |
| - | Jasper Johns |
| - | Frida Kahlo |
| - | Martin Kippenberger |
| - | Paul Klee |
| - | Egon Schiele |
| - | Donald Judd |
| - | Bruce Nauman |
| - | Alberto Giacometti |
| - | Salvador Dalí |
| - | Auguste Rodin |
| - | Mark Rothko |
| - | Edward Hopper |
| - | Lucian Freud |
| - | Richard Serra |
| - | Rene Magritte |
| - | David Hockney |
| - | Philip Guston |
| - | Henri Cartier-Bresson |
| - | Pierre Bonnard |
| - | Jean-Michel Basquiat |
| - | Max Ernst |
| - | Diane Arbus |
| - | Georgia O'Keeffe |
| - | Cy Twombly |
| - | Max Beckmann |
| - | Barnett Newman |
| - | Giorgio De Chirico |
| - | Roy Lichtenstein |
| - | Edvard Munch |
| - | Pierre Auguste Renoir |
| - | Man Ray |
| - | Henry Moore |
| - | Cindy Sherman |
| - | Jeff Koons |
| - | Tracey Emin |
| - | Damien Hirst |
| - | Yves Klein |
| - | Henri Rousseau |
| - | Chaim Soutine |
| - | Arshile Gorky |
| - | Amedeo Modigliani |
| - | Umberto Boccioni |
| - | Jean Dubuffet |
| - | Eva Hesse |
| - | Edouard Vuillard |
| - | Carl Andre |
| - | Juan Gris |
| - | Lucio Fontana |
| - | Franz Kline |
| - | David Smith |
| - | Joseph Beuys |
| - | Alexander Calder |
| - | Louise Bourgeois |
| - | Marc Chagall |
| - | Gerhard Richter |
| - | Balthus |
| - | Joan Miro |
| - | Ernst Ludwig Kirchner |
| - | Frank Stella |
| - | Georg Baselitz |
| - | Francis Picabia |
| - | Jenny Saville |
| - | Dan Flavin |
| - | Alfred Stieglitz |
| - | Anselm Kiefer |
| - | Matthew Barney |
| - | George Grosz |
| - | Bernd And Hilla Becher |
| - | Sigmar Polke |
| - | Brice Marden |
| - | Maurizio Cattelan |
| - | Sol LeWitt |
| - | Chuck Close |
| - | Edward Weston |
| - | Joseph Cornell |
| - | Karel Appel |
| - | Bridget Riley |
| - | Alexander Archipenko |
| - | Anthony Caro |
| - | Richard Hamilton |
| - | Clyfford Still |
| - | Luc Tuymans |
| - | Claes Oldenburg |
TO SEE THE FULL 200 CLICK HERE
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| Vajira Gunawardena |
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I am Vajira Gunawardena was born in 1971 in Colombo in Sri Lanka and professional artist. I brought up in Suburban environment and have had my primary and secondary education in a Colombo main-city background. I entered the world of painting in the later part of the 1990's from the 46, Horton Place Visual Art University in Sri Lanka.
Working from my studio in Weliveriya, I paint with Oil, Acrylics and any medium in a predominately neo expressionist style and close to art brut, Graffiti images. I took part in numerous exhibitions, international camps and commission works in the past ten years. Some of my works are now getting international exposure in USA, Australia, Holland and France and represented several private and public collections in Sri Lanka.
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| About the Artist |
By facing straight to the culture, the series of art works I have done was always connected to my “Daily Life”, which is an ultimate result of my personal feelings springs out from the social, political structure of modern life.
Daily Life is a historical event to a man who is immersed in a day-to-day life with full of vivid expectations. Daily life that is a manifestation of culture is continuously projecting various images through media. They remove the essence from the social structure and allow the media to refills the emptiness and rearrange the daily life as they wish. It is organized system. I use my own life and that of people around him as a point of departure to explore society’s obsession with matetarialism, instant gratification and our inability to confront the growing of human insensibility in the world that surrounds us. "My work focuses on my need to intersect body and place, memory and fact to re-examine human histories, cultural conditions, and events." I create art in order to document issues that are important to me. I respond to subject matter that range from daily occurrences in the media to more mundane aspects of life that are often taken for granted. I am interested in topical issues from the political and culture spheres, as well as social conditions that comment on human existence.
I work instinctively and intuitively. Spontaneity and experimentation play key roles in my creative process and I continuously edit my work until a unified composition and narrative emerges. Over the course of time, the pairing of disparate images and text collected from magazines, old children’s books, encyclopedias, pamphlets, brochures, flyers and other such sources of information, helps me recontextualize the ideas of various social behavioral patterns. What are seen in my creations are exceptionally disfigured human figures, heroes with exceptionally enlarged sexual organs, Sri Lankan materialistic fantasy, new individualism, market force, television, Consumer Goods and the figures of popular commodities in the urban life as chosen Signs with Text and word of commercial myth; I make an attempt to express my emotions of the contemporary social environment. The presentation is going to be as a visual diary. It depicts the external struggle of a contemporary Sri Lankan personality who was born in this culture.
Art is a bunch of concepts. I have developed artistic space and form with different scales on the same background. Through this I hope to express the complexities and differences of human relations. Along with brilliant color, most of my motif tries to develop or engender a deep psychological meaning based on social crisis. It has become over time a metaphor of our human existence and lifestyle - lifestyles that are not just fragmented, but are the mix of the thousands of images that leave pieces of impressions on our visual psyche as we race through a day. The shapes are organic and remixed with cartoon; remnants of life forms expressing a mystery of the incomplete and what remains to come all immersed in sexual satire. In an on going attempt to understand how color and shapes are "read" by the conscious and subconscious, I add tension. The tension (placement) between shapes and color in a composition is important in all my pieces no matter in which medium I choose to work. So, to identify my paintings as mirror reflections of these social upheavals seems to be a correct definition to my works of art.
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Click to enlarge images (if larger image has been loaded) |
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IF ON THE FORSAKEN LAND’S A TRAVELLER III
2005 Oil on Canvas 126x136 CM |
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SUBLIME OBJECT
2005 - SOLD Oil on Canvas 84 X 141 cm |
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There are a bright colors and compact background but not chance for exposure human figure. You can see symbols of broiler chicken, tree wheeler, wear, TV and antenna. We are living in Market society because advertising becomes necessary to express that you should not only satisfy your basic needs; you should try to express your social status by owned a product. It's a story that many people can tell every day. Endless. Universal. Timeless. Consumer goods are not geographically limited.
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WINDOW SHOPPING I
2006 Oil on Canvas 87 x 94 CM |
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WINDOW SHOPPING II
2006 Oil on Canvas 87 x 94 CM |
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LATE TOMRROW II
2006 Oil on Canvas 87x94 CM |
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LATE TOMRROW III
2007 - SOLD Oil on Canvas 126 x 136 CM |
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IF ON THE FORSAKEN LAND’S A TRAVELLER V
2007 Oil on Canvas 126 x 136 CM |
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MASTER BED ROOM I
2006 - SOLD Oil on Canvas 92 x 101 CM |
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MASTER BED ROOM I I
2006 Oil on Canvas 87x94 CM |
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ENJOYMENT
2008 - SOLD PASTAL, CRAYON AND ACRYLIC ON BOARD 60 X 75 cm |
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I WILL LOVE YOU ON SUNDAY
2008 PASTAL, CRAYON AND ACRYLIC ON BOARD 60 X 75 cm |
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I WILL LOVE YOU ON SUNDAY
2008 PASTAL, CRAYON AND ACRYLIC ON BOARD 60 X 75 cm |
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READY MADE HERO
2008 PASTAL, CRAYON AND ACRYLIC ON BOARD 60 X 75 cm |
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READY MADE HERO
2008 PASTAL, CRAYON AND ACRYLIC ON BOARD 46 X 51 cm |
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READY MADE HERO
2008 Oil on Canvas 54 X 55 cm |
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READY MADE HERO
2008 Oil on Canvas 71 X 80 cm |
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READY MADE HERO
2008 Acrylic on Canvas 93 X 100 cm |
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ENJOYMENT
2008 Acrylic on Canvas 93 X 100 cm |
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ENJOYMENT
2008 Acrylic on Canvas 87 x 94 CM |
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I WILL LOVE YOU ON SUNDAY
2008 Acrylic on Canvas 54 X 55 cm |
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| Education and biography |
ACADMIC PREPARATION
2002- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA degree) University of the Visual Arts & Performing Arts, Colombo - SRI LANKA
2000-Diploma of product design (Leather Design) Designing Department with the Cottage and Textile Industries Department - SRI LANKA
SOLO EXHIBITION
2008- “DREAM FACTORY” Drawings Exhibition at the Alliance Françoise De Colombo – SRI LANKA
2008- “THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE PERFECTLY ORDINARY” Art Exhibition at the Mieke
Kooistra’s Residence Place in Colombo - SRI LANKA
2007- “THE DREAM FACTORY” Art Exhibition at the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo- SRI LANKA
2005- “MY RECENT PAINTINGS” Art Exhibition at the Paradise Road Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
2001-“GAP2001” Art Exhibition at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
GROUP AND PARTICIPATION (SELECTED)
2008- “ARTFUL RESISTANCE: CRISIS AND CREATIVITY IN SRI LANKA” Contemporary Art Exhibition in Europe, organized by The Serandib Gallery, Colombo and Museum of
Ethnology Vienna – Austria
2008- “CONTEMPORARY ART IN SRI LANKA” the Group Exhibition of Visual Arts, the Gallery Art Korner – NETHERLANDS
2007- “WHERE, WHO, HOW, WHAT AND WHEN” the Group Exhibition of Visual Arts, Barefoot Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
2007- “NAWA KALAKAROWO” Visual Art Biennale Sri Lanka, Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, the National Art Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
2007- “VISUAL ART BIENNALE SRI LANKA” Art Exhibition, Organized by the Ministry Of
Cultural Affairs, the National Art Gallery in Colombo - SRI LANKA
2006- “12TH ASIAN ART BIENNALE BANGLADESH 2006” Exhibition in Dhaka – BANGLADESH
2006- “FEB” the Group Exhibition of Visual Arts, Barefoot Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
2004- “YOUNG CONTEMPORARY” Art Exhibition, Organized by the George Keyt Foundation,
The Harold Peiris Art Gallery in Colombo - SRI LANKA
2003- “SCULPTORS AND PAINTERS 2003” Art Exhibition, Organized by the George Keyt
Foundation, Harold Peiris Art Gallery in Colombo- SRI LANKA
2003- “NAWA KALAKARUWO” Tenth Annual Exhibition, Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, the Harold Peiris Art Gallery in Colombo - SRI LANKA
2001-“SCULPTORS AND PAINTERS" the Art Exhibition, Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, National Art Gallery in Colombo- SRI LANKA
2001- “NATIONAL ART FESTIVAL” the Art Exhibition, Organized by the Ministry of Cultural
Affairs, National Art Gallery, Colombo – SRI LANKA
2000- “ALTERNATIVE DREAM” the Group Art Exhibition, Arlen Art and Craft Gallery in
Colombo - SRI LANKA
2000- “YOUNG CONTEMPORARY” the Art Exhibition, Organized by the George Keyt
Foundation, National Art Gallery in Colombo – SRI LANKA
INTERNATIONAL CAMPS
2002- “INTERNATIONAL ARTIST CAMP” - Organized by the George Keyt Foundation,
THE Village Habarana – SRI LANKA
2001- “INTERNATIONAL ARTIST CAMP” - Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, The
Village Habarana – SRI LANKA
2000- “ART WITHOUT FRONTIERS” ARTIST CAMP- Organized by the George Keyt Foundation, the Village Habarana – SRI LANKA
GRANTS & AWARDS RECEIVED
1991- FIRST PLACE, “NATIONAL HEROES DAY” Art Competition Organized by Minister of Cultural Affairs of SRI LANKA
1992- “NATIONAL YOUTH AWARD" National Youth Award Festival, Organized by National Youth Council of SRI LANKA
1989- FIRST PLACE, “NATIONAL ATHLETIC DAY” the Art Competition, Organized by
Ministry of Athletic and National Youth Council Center in SRI LANKA
COMMUNITY PROJECTS & SERVICES
2004 - Project on the Contraction of Terra Cotta Muriel at the BROTHERS of CHARITY “NISANSALA” Ja-Ela, SRI LANKA
2002- Commissioned by the CENTER FOR SOCIETY AND RELIGION to Create a “MONUMENT FOR PEACE” Fr. MAICAL RODRIGUO MEMORIAL PLACE in Memory of The Victims of Political Violence and Human Rights Abuse in BUTHTHALA – SRI LANKA
2000 - Joint Project on the Construction of Monument at the FATIMA CHURCH for 50 Th
Anniversary Colombo - SRI LANKA
PUBLICATIONS & MEDIA
2008- “PANAMA” TV INTERVIEW PROGRAMME, Young Asia Television Network, TNL TV
2008- “THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE PERFECTLY ORDINARY” Friday Life, Page C / DAILY
MIRROR NEWS PAPER/ May 30 –MIEKE KOOISTRA
2008- “SPRINGING OUT OF THE ORDINARY” Art scope, Page 14 / DAILY NEWS PAPER/ June 04 – MIEKE KOOISTRA
2008- “DREAM FACTORY” Exhibition Catalogue – ANURA SRIWARNASINGHE, MIEKE KOOISTRA & JEAN-PHILIPPE ROY
2006- “PANAMA” TV INTERVIEW PROGRAMME, Young Asia Television Network, TNL TV
2007- “WHERE, WHO, HOW, WHAT AND WHEN” Exhibition Catalogue
2006- “ARTEKA” TV ART PROGRAMME / FEB Exhibition, SIRASA TV
2005- “VIMASUMA” Art News, Page 12 / LANKADHPA NEWS PAPER / March 06 – ANURA SRIWARNASINGHE
2005- “COLOURS OF THE CONSUMED” Art News, Page 06 / THE SUNDAY TIMES NEWS PAPER / March 06 – RANDIMA ATTYGALLE
2005- “MY RECENT PAINTINGS” Exhibition Catalogue – ANURA SRIWARNASINGHE
2001- “GAP 2001” Exhibition Catalogue – ANURA SRIWARNASINGHE
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| Future shows |
http://kooiiart.blogspot.com/
http://artsrilanka.org
http://barefootgallery.com
http://paradiseroadsl.com
those websites are display my woks and information. |
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Website: www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/v/vajira |
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| IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CONTACTING THIS ARTIST, CLICK HERE |
CLICK HERE TO SEND THIS PROFILE TO YOUR FRIENDS |
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Copyright 2003-2010 © The Saatchi Gallery : London Contemporary Art Gallery
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