TRILOGY, an exhibition of paintings opened to the public on October 8 at J.D.A. Perera Gallery, unfolding an unmatchable combination of paintings by three artists. R.M. Dharmasena, a visual artist and former senior lecturer at University of Visual and Performing arts, Colombo, Sarath Gunasiri Perera, a senior lecturer at the department of painting at the faculty of Visual and Performing arts, University of Colombo and Santos Arzu Quioto, a visual artist from Honduras, Central America have brought out TRILOGY with a fusion of each other’s creativity in three unique scopes.
As the gallery was decorated with the paintings hanging on the walls, we were awed by the wonder of their mastery performed on a piece of canvas. “Art is where freedom lies and Art happens when we search for freedom,” said Sarath Gunasiri Perera. Art is spiritual and has no figures; it’s truly spontaneous and lies across the borders.
The three artists have been capable of making a name for their creations for falling under the genre of ‘Non-figurative Abstract Expressionism,’ while bringing their beholders to a blank state unable to define what art lies before them. This special genre of paintings falls under no ‘particular’ theme for they don’t define one thing at a time. People who see the paintings can understand them in their own way. Here, the artist’s part is just to let himself out moving freely in his sensation with the language of painting: colour forms and light.
By the time the Second World War came to an end, the artists were in search of new identical ways to express themselves bursting out with the pressure they underwent. The concept of Abstract Expressionism came to existence in 1940s as a World War 11 art movement fitting to the post-war mood of trauma and anxiety.
The term ‘Abstract Expressionism’ was coined considering the combination of emotional intensity and self denial. The artists in the post-war era were left with the confusion of the turbulence of their subconscious and the struggle for self-expression. Also, these artists were known for their anarchic and rebellious approach to art which paved the way to think out of the frame too. If in a way, someone wants to define this art, it’s like the artist is confessing his heart out, expressing himself with profound emotion, at the same time with streams of color making different shades and abstract forms. It’s the rage and the intensity of the artist’s sentiments that make the painting more striking with vigorous brush strokes or more soothing with soft colors. It’s less like a typical painting with human figures and objects in their ordinary shapes and it’s more of a painting without objects and with archetypical symbols.
R.M. Dharmasena said, “We don’t offer people something they have already seen, it’s like we draw ordinary things in ways that most people don’t see, without giving them proper borders.
This type of art first captures the spectator’s heart by its bewitching fusion of colors, and then it gives them something to think about.” Most of his paintings were in line with ‘Creative Landscapes’ that he was inspired by the sea, the sky and the land.
A bit varying from that of Sarath Perera, who had depicted the landscapes in ways they don’t seem like they are landscapes at once. He has left so much to pause for a moment and ponder. Even though he didn’t mention about the meditative spirit of these creations, that was the very first thing our team could feel gazing at the paintings for a while as if we were mesmerized by the sight of them.
Santos Arzu Quioto owns a history of a lifetime with art that it all has made him come up with extremely unique, two dimensional paintings that depict the universe creating the planets, eclipse, dusk and dawn with so many shades of color, dust, patches and strokes.
What has made his art unique is that he has used some little objects such as marbles and particles to create but still the paintings do not show any specific objects that can be defined clearly. Quioto was so happy to mention about his journey so far, he is a sociologist and he’s into the field of economics too. Art has been his passion throughout many years and now he has been successful in making it a profession too. This combination of Sri Lankan and American art making an effort to make the concept ‘Non-Figurative Abstract Expressionism’ seen and felt and to earn it recognition, especially in the Asian context, is very much appreciative and this exhibition proves that they have taken a huge step towards establishing this concept of art in a wider scope.
“The issue we’re having in letting ‘art’ blend with people is, they are not exposed to these types of art like music and songs. So they don’t have enough knowledge to enjoy them and to respond to suchlike art,” added R.M. Dharmasena.