Dumith Kulasekara: Visual Arts Practice, Research & Writing.

"Organs without Bodies" is a piece of art that I created in 2019 which is one of the series of works that I have been producing for years, yet have not been on view within the public. The audience may have thought that it is not the work by Dumith Kulasekara as it is not showing (according to the audience) the features of my works which the public has been familiar with for a certain period of time. One reason for this could be a gap (this is a very critical concept in the critical theory of art) between the works seen by the public before the “Organs without Bodies”. So, now there is (the ) thing confronted to the audience that is beyond the dimension of thinking which encounters the subject with a shock that can create a psychic trauma (Kulasekara 2015, 4)  At this point, I am not going to clear that idea here. Rather I will leave it for the time and the audience. But I prefer to put it in a provocative way or in Lacanian way “Large hole and opening”. There is a large hol...

On an invitation sent by the Fine Art Faculty of the SOJO University in Japan, I attended for one-month residency program on visual arts research from December 2018 to January 2019. The Faculty is located in Kumamoto city which is a very quiet and fantastic place for studying and living. The Faculty of the fine art of the SOJO University consists of departments of Western Painting, Japanese Style Painting, Graphic Designs, and Sculpture. I had opportunities to work in figure drawing sessions in the sculpture department with Professor Kayako Kusumato and Professor Katsuno who are the leading professors in the department of sculpture and professional sculptors in Japan. Observing these professional sculptors' studios located in the faculty building has taken me into places where all kinds of research activities on materials, forms, and conceptual strategies are taking place. The studios are full of studies of sculptures and objects in bronze, ceramics and terracotta, and mixed m...

In 2018 I visited Athens for the third time. This year, it was dedicated to presenting my current research titled the examination of monochrome practices in contemporary art at the 9th Conference on Visual and Performing Arts held in Athens, Greece. My research practice is  always connected with site visits to the cultural and historical places in the world. This research examined the dimension of the idea of the monochrome present in the works produced by contemporary artists.  My research shows the constant presence of monochrome in painting and sculpture since the ancient time of art history. The research further found how such a monochromatic tone (as color, form, and idea as well) has become a language of art, especially in contemporary art. This third-time tour to  Athens, the place where gave birth to so many cultural, political, and historical phenomenon, has always given me a new insight of deeply looking back at the history and contemporary of visual arts p...

This exhibition included the body of works that I created during four months of the residency program at the fine art department of the K’Arts in Seoul, South Korea. The exhibition was held at 175 Gallery (K’Arts) in Seoul, South Korea. This show includes three larger size paintings and four drawings in Japanese Ink and drawings in ink and pen. In producing the works and curating the exhibition, I conceptualized Skins as a screen that exists as a shield of cover which prevents us from directly encountered the body (interior which is brutal and bloody). The works show the dresses with the in-completed body. I titled these works as a body without organs.

The Korea National University of Arts is one of the leading art universities in Seoul, South Korea, which has very strong graduate and postgraduate programs in visual arts. I was invited by the Faculty of Fine Arts for a four-month visiting researcher program. In this four-month program (AMFEK), I carried out studio-based research on the theme of the body and produced a body of work that includes paintings and drawings. The studio-based research was exhibited as an exhibition that was curated by myself. The exhibition was titled Skins. The catalog includes the text with my curatorial notes and the reproduction of the works

This is my first encounter with the works by one of my favorite contemporary artists Cindy Sherman. These photographic works are colossal in their scale.  The subject matter of her works as investigating the identity of the body and self and its different connotations within different contexts are addressed fantastically. And It reminds me of the works by the great tradition of portrait paintings from the Renaissance to the so-called post-modern age. Cindy's work is a good example of visual culture which I have been discussing in my studio and lecture practice at the department.  As a form of visual language, she blends it with the language of painting that marks a sign of post-modernity in art practices.  Looking at the bodies, textures, and colors very closely (I would say it n Derridain's term; a  close reading of material worlds  ) these works generate the power of exhibiting the fishing of all these contemporary materials. It is represented in the way of t...

6th International Conference of Visual and Performing Arts, Athens Institute for Education and Research, 30 May - 2 June 2016 In my second tour in Europe, I presented my research on Gustave Courbet and His legacy in Contemporary Art. This is my second visit to Athens and the second time presenting my research paper at this international conference. In this research paper, I have explored one of the critical paintings created by the leading artist in the 18th-century realist art movement Gustave Courbet (1819-1877). The painting titled The Origin of the World has been related to me in several ways. The first, it was in 2005 when I was in the second year of the BFA program, I have created a drawing of a woman’s genital in the posed very similar to the painting by Courbet. At that time I had not seen any reproduction of this image. Later, I became to know about this painting and I was impressed by the way of representing this body and the genital of the woman that we are not shown its ...

The works shown here were created  between 2006 and 2013. And the most of the works exhibited in Dumith Kulasekara's first and second solo shows which took place in 2008 and 2011 at the Harold Peries Gallery in Colombo 07, Sri Lanka. These works represent his visual forms and images of more than fifteen years research on the theme of  Trauma . In fact, Kulasekara's works bring together extreme critical, political view of the artist and aesthetic of language of painting that he gained through a rigorous practice in his studio.  All right received by Dumith Kulasekara 2015

5th International Conference of Visual and Performing Arts, Athens Institute for Education and Research, June 1-4 2015 My visit to Athens in Greek has been a significant sign for my studio and research practices in many ways. In particular, presenting a paper that reflects my own studio practice on Trauma in a place like Greece where the term trauma first defined and used meant a lot to me. The city of Athens is one of the historical cities in the whole history of art, science, and philosophy which gave the foundation The Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens, Greece, pic: by Dumith Kulasekara of many disciples in the western world from classical antiquity to the contemporary context. It was a great time that I had in Athens on June 1-4 in 2015. I delivered my speech on the theme of trauma that I have been researching on for more than ten years in my career as an artist and researcher in the field of Visual Arts. It also marks a significant place in terms of my journey as an artis...

Looking is one of the most significant acts in human lives. It is very psychic and subjective. In 2013, I had a great opportunity to study Old Masters' works for nearly three months at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.  All right reserved by Dumith Kulasekara 2014

All Rights Reserved by Dumith Kulasekara 2006

I painted this image in 2011 when I was having my second solo show in Colombo. As part my studio works, I usually  “Crying Masculinity” on view in London 1-12 March, Asia House, London All Rights Reserved by Dumith Kulasekara 2009

  All Rights Reserved by Dumith Kulasekara 2010

All Rights Reserved by Dumith Kulasekara 2006