Arts Festival

In Association with

Arts Exhibition

Semi-Autobiographical

Curated by Pramodha Weerasekara

17th - 19th January 2025

Location : Colombo Public Library

In literature, an ‘autobiography’ refers to a life lived and told by the same person. Autobiography as a genre can reveal, confess, expose, conceal, and blur. This exhibition extends the popular literary genre of autobiography to visual art, and asks the following questions: What stories from their personal lives do artists hold dear? Why do they tell these stories? How do they tell these stories using visual language? This exhibition explores the nuances of 16 autobiographical practices of artists from Sri Lanka. All works are acts of vulnerability and emotion. As you walk through the exhibition, you will come across instances where the artists themselves are present, where they are a fictional version of themselves, where they respond to an intense relationship with a loved one, where they record a historical moment, or where they are almost absent. The exhibition is an attempt to understand the myriad ways in which the personal can become political. 

The Art Curator

Pramodha Weerasekera is a writer, arts programmer, and emerging curator of modern and contemporary art in South Asia with over 8 years of professional experience. She has an interdisciplinary educational and professional background in literary studies, visual cultures, and law. Her research interests are gender, emotion, visual cultures, and feminist ways of life. Her writing has appeared in e-flux, Art Review, Hyperallergic, STIRworld, and several local and international exhibition catalogues.